William Lemke

William Frederick Lemke ( born August 13, 1878 in Albany, Stearns County, Minnesota, † May 30, 1950 in Fargo, North Dakota ) was an American politician. He represented the state of North Dakota in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the top candidate of the short-lived Union Party in the presidential election of 1936.

William Lemke was the son of a farmer couple. He grew up in Towner County to North Dakota and spent a lot of time to work on the family farm. The public school he attended only during the summer months. The his parents' savings were sufficient, however, to allow him to study at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, where he rendered outstanding services and graduated in 1902. He then moved to the Law School of Georgetown University, before he graduated from Yale. He returned in 1905 returned to North Dakota, where he practiced law in Fargo.

From 1921 to 1922 Lemke served as Attorney General of North Dakota. In 1932 he was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he competed as a Republican candidate, at this time, but still belonged to the Nonpartisan League. As a member of this political association he remained until January 3, 1941 at the Congress.

During this time, William Lemke earned a reputation as a progressive politician who represented the interests of a farm family and the New Deal of President Roosevelt supported. This, however, retired 1934, the opposition to Lemke, when he brought an introduced from this together with another members bill to case. The Frazier - Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act provided a rescheduling ago in favor loaded by mortgage Farmer.

This was also a reason that Lemke 1936 accepted him and accumulated by the Union Party was founded only in this year 's presidential candidacy against incumbent Roosevelt; his running mate for vice-president was Thomas C. O'Brien from Massachusetts. Both scored 892 378 votes, representing a share of nearly two percent. This meant the third place behind the victorious again Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Republican Alf Landon.

In 1940, Lemke was another Republican candidate for the House of Representatives; However, he refused and instead competed unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Two years later, now he had joined the Republicans, he won again the election to the House of Representatives, where he served until his death in May 1950.