Preceded by Paul O. Husting Political party Republican Party Republican Party Succeeded by John J. Blaine Occupation Attorney | Preceded by John J. Jenkins Name Irvine Lenroot Resigned March 4, 1927 Succeeded by Adolphus P. Nelson Spouse Clara Clough (m. 1890) | |
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Born January 31, 1869
Superior, Wisconsin ( 1869-01-31 ) Role Former United States Senator Died January 26, 1949, Washington, D.C., United States | ||
Previous office Senator (WI) 1918–1927 | ||
Irvine Luther Lenroot (January 31, 1869 – January 26, 1949) was a Republican politician from Wisconsin who served in the House of Representatives from 1909 to 1918 and in the United States Senate from 1918 to 1927.
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He was also Warren G. Harding's personal preference for Vice President of the United States in 1920, but the delegates chose instead to nominate Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge.
After leaving the Senate, Lenroot served for 15 years as a judge on the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.
Early life and career
Lenroot was born in Superior, Wisconsin in 1869. He was educated in the local schools, and worked at a variety of occupations, including logger. From 1887 to 1889 he attended Parsons Business College in Duluth, Minnesota. After graduation, he became a stenographer in a Superior law office, and began to study law. From 1893 to 1896 he was the court reporter for the Superior Court of Douglas County. He attained admission to the bar in 1897, and began practicing in 1898. He served in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1901 to 1907, and as Speaker of the Assembly from 1903 to 1907. Lenroot was elected as a Republican to the 61st Congress representing the 11th district. He was subsequently reelected to the four succeeding Congresses. He served from 1909 to 1918, when he resigned after being elected to the U.S. Senate in a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Paul O. Husting the previous year. He was reelected in 1920, and served from April 18, 1918 to March 3, 1927.
1920 Republican Convention
Senator Lenroot attended the 1920 Republican National Convention at the Chicago Coliseum, and after the selection of Harding as the GOP nominee for president, GOP leaders decided that the progressive Lenroot would be a balance to a ticket with the more conservative Harding. By Saturday night, June 12, many of the delegates had gone home, along with most of the party bosses. After Lenroot's name had been placed in nomination and seconded, but before a vote could be taken, an Oregon delegate, Wallace McCamant, nominated Coolidge for vice president. Unfettered by party bosses, the delegates weighed in for Coolidge, who received 674 votes to Lenroot's 146 and won on the first ballot.
Post-convention
Lenroot's 1920 reelection was the most competitive race for a Republican senator in the nation; he received 41.6% of the vote in competition with strong independent, Democratic, and Socialist candidates. Independent James Thompson came in second place with 34.7%. Lenroot ran again in 1926, but lost the Republican primary to John J. Blaine.
During Lenroot's Senate service he was chairman of: the Committee on Railroads (Sixty-sixth Congress); Committee on Public Lands and Surveys (Sixty-eighth Congress); and Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds (Sixty-ninth Congress).
He was appointed a judge of the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals by President Herbert Hoover in 1929, and served there until his retirement in 1944. He married Clara Clough, of Superior, Wisconsin, who wrote a short memoir of her girlhood in Wisconsin in the 1860s and 1870s. His daughter, Katharine Lenroot, was known for successfully lobbying for the Fair Labor Standards Act, and in regulating enforcement of child labor laws.
Lenroot died in Washington on January 26, 1949, five days short of his 80th birthday and was buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in Superior, Wisconsin. The Associated Press report of his death began, "Former Senator Irvine L. Lenroot of Wisconsin, the man who might have been the 30th President of the United States, died Wednesday night."