Harry Sauthoff

Who was Harry Sauthoff?

Harry Sauthoff, Sr., son of a German immigrant and brother of Dr. August Sauthoff, was a lawyer and politician from Madison, Wisconsin. A 1909 law graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he was district attorney of Dane County, Wisconsin, from 1915 to 1919. In 1921 Sauthoff served as Secretary to Governor John J. Blaine and as a delegate to the International Conference on the St. Lawrence Deep Waterway in 1921.

Sauthoff served in the Wisconsin State Senate from 1925 to 1929 before serving in the United States House of Representatives representing Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district. He was elected as a Progressive in the 1934 elections and served from January 3, 1935 to January 3, 1939 as part of the 74th and 75th United States Congress. He lost his reelection bid in the 1938 election. He ran again in 1940 and won, serving again from January 3, 1941 - January 3, 1945 this time as part of the 77th and 78th Congresses. He was defeated in the 1944 election for the United States Senate, receiving 5.8 percent of the vote as a third-party candidate.