Jonathan P. Dolliver - U.S. Senate

U.S. Senate

The following month (July 1900), Iowa U.S. Senator John H. Gear died while in office. Iowa Governor Leslie M. Shaw selected Dolliver to replace Gear. Dolliver was twice re-elected to the Senate by the Iowa General Assembly. In the Senate, he served as chairman of the Committee on Pacific Railroads in the Fifty-seventh through Fifty-ninth Congresses, Committee on Education and Labor in the Fifty-ninth and Sixtieth Congresses, and the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry in the Sixty-first Congress.

In the 1908 presidential election, Dolliver's name was again touted as a potential vice-presidential candidate, this time on the ticket with William Howard Taft. As the convention approached Dolliver indicated that he preferred to remain in the Senate. In response to further pressure (and suggestions of support from the Roosevelt White House), he softened his position by indicating that he would not refuse the position if offered it. However, the Convention instead chose James S. Sherman.

During Dolliver's service in the Senate, Iowa Republicans were divided between a conservative old guard that had dominated state politics since the Civil War, and a new progressive wing led by Albert B. Cummins, a lawyer and (after 1902) Governor of Iowa. The flash point for this division was Cummins' effort in 1908 to join Dolliver in the Senate by challenging legendary Senator William B. Allison in the Republican primary. Dolliver had a national reputation as a progressive. However, he supported Allison, who ultimately prevailed in the primary but died shortly thereafter, and was succeeded by Cummins. Dolliver soon reconciled with Cummins, and became increasingly aligned with Cummins in his party's progressive wing.