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Bob Kasten
United States Senator from Wisconsin
In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1993
Preceded by	Gaylord Nelson
Succeeded by	Russ Feingold
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 9th district
In office January 3, 1975 – January 3, 1979
Preceded by	Glenn R. Davis
Succeeded by	Jim Sensenbrenner
Member of the Wisconsin Senate from the 4th district
In office January 1, 1973 – January 3, 1975
Preceded by	Nile Soik
Succeeded by	Jim Sensenbrenner
Personal details
Born	Robert Walter Kasten Jr. (1942-06-19) June 19, 1942 (age 82) Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Eva Jean Nimmons, Sarah Kasten
Education	University of Arizona (BA) Columbia University (MBA)
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Air Force
Years of service	1966-1972
Unit	Wisconsin Air National Guard

Robert Walter Kasten Jr. (born June 19, 1942) is an American Republican politician from the state of Wisconsin who served as a U.S. Representative from 1975 to 1979 and as a United States Senator from 1981 to 1993.

Background

Kasten was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended the Milwaukee Country Day School before graduating in 1960 from The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut, in 1964 from the University of Arizona in Tucson, and received his M.B.A. from the Columbia Business School in 1966. He served in the Wisconsin Air National Guard from 1966 to 1972.

Elected office

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Kasten was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate in 1972. In 1974, he was elected to the House of Representatives after defeating incumbent Glenn R. Davis in a Republican primary election. He was reelected in 1976. He ran for Governor of Wisconsin in 1978, but lost the Republican nomination to Lee S. Dreyfus, who went on to win the general election.

Kasten ran for the United States Senate in 1980 and narrowly defeated Democrat and incumbent Senator Gaylord Nelson. The victory was propelled in part by the popularity of Ronald Reagan at the top of the Republican ticket. In the Senate, Kasten was an outspoken conservative. He was the first Republican to represent Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate since Alexander Wiley left office in 1963.

In 1985, Kasten was arrested and charged with driving under the influence after a District of Columbia police officer observed him running a red light and driving on the wrong side of the road. The DUI charges were later dropped.

In 1986, Kasten narrowly defeated Democrat Ed Garvey to win a second term after a very bitter campaign, one that was characterized by personal attacks and is remembered as one of the nastiest elections in Wisconsin history. Kasten was defeated by Democratic state Senator Russ Feingold in 1992.

Kasten voted in favor of the bill establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday and the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 (as well as to override President Reagan's veto). Kasten voted in favor of the nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court.

After the Senate

Since 1993, he has been President of Kasten & Company, a consulting firm. In July 2007, Kasten joined the presidential campaign of Republican Rudy Giuliani as a foreign policy adviser. He chaired Giuliani's Wisconsin campaign, along with former U.S. Representative Scott Klug and former State Senator Cathy Stepp.

After Giuliani dropped out, Kasten endorsed his close friend and former Senate colleague John McCain. In April 2016, Kasten endorsed Republican frontrunner Donald Trump for president in 2016, becoming part of Trump's foreign policy advisory team.

Electoral history

Cultural references

Writer Mike Baron named a recurring character in his Wisconsin-based comic book Badger after Kasten, then Wisconsin's junior senator. The character, a peg-legged, vampire-hunting pig named "Senator Bob Kasten", made several appearances in the series. A student political party on the University of Wisconsin Madison campus satirically named themselves the "Bob Kasten School of Driving" (a reference to his DUI arrest); it won the campus-wide elections in 1986 and 1987.

References

1. 'Wisconsin Blue Book 1991-1992,' Biographical Sketch of Robert W. Kasten, pg. 11
2. "Sen. Kasten Accused of Driving While Drunk". Los Angeles Times. December 14, 1985. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
3. "Indictments--A Grand Congressional Tradition Since 1798". Los Angeles Times. 5 June 1994. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
4. Raymond Coffey (October 31, 1986). "Wisconsin Race Hits Low Road". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
5. "To Pass H.R. 3706. (Motion Passed) See Note(s) 19".
6. "To Pass S 557, Civil Rights Restoration Act, a Bill to Restore the Broad Coverage and Clarify Four Civil Rights Laws by Providing that If One Part of An Institution Is Federally Funded, Then the Entire Institution Must Not Discriminate".
7. "To Adopt, Over the President's Veto of S 557, Civil Rights Restoration Act, a Bill to Restore Broad Coverage of Four Civil Rights Laws by Declaring that If One Part of An Institution Receives Federal Funds, Then the Entire Institution Must Not Discriminate. Two-Thirds of The Senate, Having Voted in The Affirmative, Overrode the Presidential Veto".
8. Craig Gilbert; Katherine M. Skiba; Audrey Hoffe (July 21, 2007). "Former Wisconsin senator joins Giuliani's team". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
9. "Regional News Briefs". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. August 30, 2007. Archived from the original on June 25, 2016. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
10. "Former Wisconsin Senator Bob Kasten Endorses John McCain".
11. Gilbert, Craig (February 13, 2008). "Former GOP Sen. Bob Kasten joins Trump foreign policy team". blog.4president.org. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
12. "Senator Bob Kasten". Internationalhero.co.uk. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
13. "Ex-UW Student Prez up for 'Annie'". The Capital Times, January 24, 2005.

External links

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Appearances on C-SPAN

v t e United States senators from Wisconsin
Class 1	Dodge Doolittle Carpenter Cameron Sawyer Mitchell Quarles La Follette Sr. La Follette Jr. McCarthy Proxmire Kohl Baldwin
Class 3	Walker Durkee Howe Carpenter Cameron Spooner Vilas Spooner Stephenson Husting Lenroot Blaine Duffy Wiley Nelson Kasten Feingold Johnson

• 1942 births
• Living people
• American Episcopalians
• Republican Party United States senators from Wisconsin
• Republican Party Wisconsin state senators
• Choate Rosemary Hall alumni
• Columbia Business School alumni
• University of Arizona alumni
• Politicians from Milwaukee
• Military personnel from Milwaukee
• People from Wallingford, Connecticut
• Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin
• Members of Congress who became lobbyists
• 20th-century United States senators
• 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives
• 20th-century members of the Wisconsin Legislature