Russ Feingold

His father, Leon Feingold (1912–1980), was an attorney; his mother, Sylvia Feingold (née Binstock; 1918–2005), worked at a title company.

Feingold was one of four children.

Feingold's father and his older brother David, a Vietnam War conscientious objector, were the major influences on his political development as a youth.

As a boy he was also involved with the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization and Aleph Zadik Aleph.

Russell Dana Feingold (born March 2, 1953) is an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States Senator from Wisconsin from 1993 to 2011.

In 1972, Feingold volunteered for the presidential campaign of New York City mayor John Lindsay.

He later supported the presidential campaigns of Mo Udall and Ted Kennedy.

After graduating from Joseph A. Craig High School, Feingold attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison and graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in political science.

He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and was inducted into the Iron Shield Society, which is considered the highest honor achievable by University of Wisconsin-Madison undergraduate students.

Feingold then went to Magdalen College at the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, where he graduated in 1977 with a first-class honours Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence.

Upon returning to the U.S., he attended Harvard Law School, receiving his J.D. with honors in 1979.

Feingold worked as an attorney at the private law firms of Foley & Lardner and La Follette & Sinykin from 1979 until 1985.

In 1982, Feingold was elected to the Wisconsin Senate, where he served for ten years until his election to the United States Senate.

After he was elected to the United States Senate, Feingold was succeeded in the state senate by Joe Wineke.

From 1983 to 1993, he was a Wisconsin State Senator representing the 27th District.

Feingold's senatorial career began in 1992 with a victory over incumbent Republican Senator Bob Kasten.

Feingold had little name recognition in the state and was campaigning in a primary against Congressman Jim Moody and businessman Joe Checota, but adopted several proposals to gain the electorate's attention.

He painted five promises on his garage door, calling it a contract with Wisconsin voters.

Among Feingold's promises was a pledge to rely on Wisconsin citizens for most of his contributions and a pledge to hold a "listening session" in each of Wisconsin's 72 counties each year he was in office.

Feingold released an advertisement featuring an Elvis Presley impersonator endorsing his candidacy.

His Republican opponent, Bob Kasten, responded to the ad with one of his own featuring another Elvis impersonator attacking Feingold's record.

During the primary campaign, Feingold unveiled an 82-point plan that aimed to eliminate the deficit by the end of his first term.

The plan called for a raise in taxes and cuts in the defense budget, among other things, and was derided as "extremist" by Republicans and "too liberal" by his Democratic opponents.

Feingold also announced his support for strict campaign finance reform and a national health care system and voiced his opposition to term limits and new tax cuts.

Feingold won by positioning himself as a quirky underdog who offered voters an alternative to what was seen by many as negative campaigning of opponents Jim Moody and Joe Checota.

On primary day, Feingold, who had polled in the single digits during much of the campaign, won 70% of the vote.

Seven weeks later, while Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and Ross Perot split the Wisconsin presidential vote 41%-37%-21%, Feingold beat Kasten, 53% to 46%.

During his 1998 reelection campaign, Feingold was outspent by his Republican opponent, Representative Mark Neumann, and targeted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

With John McCain, Feingold received the 1999 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

He and McCain cosponsored the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (McCain–Feingold Act), a major piece of campaign finance reform legislation.

He was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act during the first vote on the legislation.

Feingold was mentioned as a possible candidate in the 2008 presidential election, but in November 2006 announced he would not run.

In 2010, Feingold lost his campaign for reelection to the U.S. Senate to Republican nominee Ron Johnson.

He was defeated by Johnson in a rematch of their 2010 Senate race.

On June 18, 2013, he was selected by Secretary of State John Kerry to replace R. Barrie Walkley as a special envoy to the Great Lakes region of Africa.

On May 14, 2015, Feingold announced his candidacy for his old Senate seat in 2016.

A member of the Democratic Party, he was its nominee in the 2016 election for the same U.S. Senate seat he had previously occupied.

In 2020, Feingold became president of the American Constitution Society.

Feingold was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, to a Jewish family.

His grandparents were immigrants from Russia and Galicia.