Nationality American Spouse Sarah Kasten | Preceded by Glenn R. Davis Name Bob Kasten | |
 | ||
Full Name Robert Walter Kasten, Jr. Role Former U.S. Representative Previous offices Senator (WI) 1981–1993, Representative 1975–1979 | ||
Member of congress start date January 3, 1975 | ||
Kasten Says U.S. Should Identify With Egypt Protestors
Robert Walter Kasten Jr. (born June 19, 1942) is a Republican politician from the state of Wisconsin who served as a U.S. Representative from 1975 to 1979 and as a U.S. Senator from 1981 to 1993.
Contents
- Kasten Says US Should Identify With Egypt Protestors
- Background
- Elected office
- After the Senate
- Lawsuit
- References
Background
Kasten was born in Milwaukee. He graduated in 1960 from The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut, in 1964 from the University of Arizona in Tucson, and received his M.B.A. from the Columbia Business School in 1966. He served in the Wisconsin Air National Guard from 1966 to 1972.
Elected office
Kasten was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate in 1972. In 1974, he was elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican. He was reelected in 1976. He ran for Governor of Wisconsin in 1978, but lost the Republican nomination to Lee S. Dreyfus.
Kasten ran for the United States Senate in 1980 and narrowly defeated Democrat and incumbent Senator Gaylord Nelson. The victory was propelled in part by the popularity of Ronald Reagan at the top of the Republican ticket. In the Senate, Kasten was an outspoken conservative. He was the first Republican to represent Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate since Alexander Wiley left office in 1963 after being defeated in 1962 by Nelson.
In 1985, Kasten was arrested and charged with driving under the influence after a District of Columbia police officer observed him running a red light and driving on the wrong side of the road. The charges were later dropped.
In 1986, Kasten narrowly defeated Democrat Ed Garvey to win a second term after a very bitter campaign, one that was characterized by personal attacks and is remembered as one of the nastiest elections in Wisconsin history. Kasten was defeated by Democratic state Senator Russ Feingold in 1992.
After the Senate
Since 1993, he has been President of Kasten & Company, a consulting firm. In July 2007, Kasten joined the presidential campaign of Republican Rudy Giuliani as a foreign policy adviser. He chaired Giuliani's Wisconsin campaign, along with former U.S. Representative Scott Klug and former State Senator Cathy Stepp.
After Giuliani dropped out, Kasten endorsed his close friend and former Senate colleague, John McCain. In April 2016, Kasten endorsed Republican frontrunner Donald Trump for president in 2016, becoming part of Trump's foreign policy advisory team.
Lawsuit
In March 2013, over thirty shareholders filed a lawsuit against Kasten, Robert Brazell, In-Store Broadcasting Network, Talos Partners, and several other associates, alleging violation of the Utah Uniform Securities Act and various other criminal acts, for their investments in IBN totaling "approximately $2 million".