Feingold, Russ, 1953-

Variant names

Dates:

Birth 1953-03-02

Gender:

Male

Nationality: Americans

Language: English

Biographical notes:

Russell Dana Feingold (born March 2, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin between 1993 and 2001.

Born in Janesville, Wisconsin, he graduated from Craig High School there before earning a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a B.A. from Magdalen College at the University of Oxford, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. 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. He worked as a visiting professor at Beloit College in 1985.

Feingold's senatorial career began in 1992 with a victory over incumbent Republican Senator Bob Kasten. Overcoming better known opponents in the Democratic primary, Feingold narrowly defeated Kasten. During his 18 years in the United States Senate, Russ was ranked 6th in the Senate for bipartisan voting. He cosponsored the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold Act), the only major piece of campaign finance reform legislation passed into law in decades. Russ was the only Senator to vote against the initial enactment of the USA PATRIOT Act during the first vote on the legislation and was well-known for his opposition to the Iraq War and as the Senate's leading opponent of the death penalty. He served on the Judiciary, Foreign Relations, Budget, and Intelligence Committees. Russ was Chairman or Ranking Member of the Constitution Subcommittee. With John McCain, Feingold received the 1999 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

In 2010, Feingold lost his campaign for reelection to the U.S. Senate to Republican nominee Ron Johnson. In June 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, serving in that role through March 2015. In 2016, Feingold lost to Johnson in his attempt to regain his Senate seat. In 2020, Feingold became president of the American Constitution Society.