L. J. Dickinson

Lester Jesse ("L. J." or "Dick") Dickinson (October 29, 1873 – June 4, 1968) was a Republican United States representative and senator from Iowa. He was, in the words of Time magazine, "a big, friendly, white-thatched Iowa lawyer." In early 1936, he dreamed of winning the presidency. However, the only race he would enter that year would be for his own seat in the Senate which he lost.

Personal background Dickinson was born on a farm near Derby, Iowa in Lucas County, to Levi and Willimine Morton Dickinson. When he was five, his family moved to another farm outside Danbury, Iowa, in Woodbury County. creating a great political liability in 1918. After defeating Woods in the primary, Dickinson defeated the Democratic nominee (as did every Republican nominee in every general election race during the existence of that district, from 1882 to 1931).

Dickinson became the House's "leader of that body's first, historic Farm Bloc."

U.S. Senator Democratic U.S. Senator Daniel F. Steck's seat was up in 1930. Steck, the first Democratic senator from Iowa since the American Civil War, had reached the Senate with the assistance of many conservative Republican voters (who refused to support the 1924 Republican primary victor, Smith W. Brookhart, because of his anti-business, pro-labor views) and an unprecedented vote by the Senate in 1926 to overturn its original choice to seat Brookhart in 1925. Thus, Steck's "election" was viewed as an anomaly, and several Republicans fought for the chance to run for his seat in 1930. Running as a supporter of the controversial Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, Dickinson defeated sitting Iowa Governor John Hammill and two others in the Republican primary, and easily defeated Steck in the general election.

In 1932, he was chosen to deliver the keynote speech at the 1932 Republican National Convention, where fellow Iowa native Herbert Hoover was re-nominated for his failed re-election bid. The former senator's involvement bolstered the young firm's reputation, and it became one of the leading business law firms in Des Moines and the state. Known informally for decades as "the Dickinson firm," it is currently known as Dickinson, Mackaman, Tyler & Hagen, P.C.

Dickinson died on June 4, 1968.