Lloyd Thurston

Who was Lloyd Thurston?

Lloyd Thurston was a seven-term Republican U.S. Representative from southern Iowa. First elected in 1924, he served until 1938, when he unsuccessfully sought election to the U.S. Senate. By his final term, he had served on three of the most powerful House committees.

Born in Osceola, Iowa, Thurston attended the public schools. During the Spanish-American War enlisted on June 13, 1898, as a private in Company I of the Iowa Volunteer Infantry's Fifty-first Regiment. He also served with this company during the Philippine–American War, and was honorably discharged on November 2, 1899.

In 1902, he graduated from the University of Iowa College of Law at Iowa City, Iowa. He was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced private practice in Osceola. He served as a prosecuting attorney for Clarke County, Iowa from 1906 to 1910.

Thurston served as captain in the Iowa National Guard from 1902 to 1906. During the First World War served with the rank of captain in Company C, Twenty-sixth Battalion, of the United States Guards, at Fort Crook, Nebraska.

After serving as member of the Iowa Senate from 1920 to 1924, he ran for a seat in the U.S. House for Iowa's 8th congressional district that was open due to the retirement of Hiram Kinsman Evans. He defeated populist Democrat Rev. LeRoy Munyon, by over 16,000 votes. After re-election landslides in 1926 and 1928, he survived a close challenge in 1930, winning by a margin of fewer than 1,600 votes.