Progressive

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Party_%28United_States%2C_1924%29

Members of the Legislature: 0
Highest Office Won: Congress (1936)
Founded: 1924

NOTE: California has had several Progressive Parties. The first, also known as the Bull Moose Party, existed from 1914 to 1918. The second Progressive Party existed from 1924 to 1942. The final, known in California as the Independent Progressive Party, existed from 1948 to 1955.

Officially known as the "United States Progressive Party", the party operated in California from 1934-1940 and nationally from 1924-1942. Like the earlier "Bull Moose" Progressive Party, the second Progressive Party was initially used as a vehicle for a Presidential Campaign. Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. organized the party to support his 1924 campaign. After Senator La Follette's death in 1925, his son won his seat. In 1934, after becoming dissatisfied with President Hoover, La Follette broke the Progressive Party away from the Republicans. That year, the Progressive won the Wisconsin gubernatorial election, and ran seven candidates in California (the California candidates all lost).

Two years later, the Party won a California Congressional race, which made Franck R. Havenner the only member of the Progressive Party to win partisan office in California. Two years later, Havenner won reelection as a Democrat, and the party went into decline. The party continued to run candidates in California until 1940, disappearing nationally by 1943.