Paul O. Husting

Paul Oscar Adolph Husting (April 25, 1866 – October 21, 1917) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician from Mayville, Wisconsin. He was the first popularly-elected United States senator from Wisconsin, serving from 1915 until his death in 1917. He previously served eight years in the Wisconsin Senate, representing Dodge County, and was district attorney for four years. He was a grandson of Solomon Juneau, the founder of Milwaukee.

Husting is the last senator of this seat to date who did not lose reelection or renomination.

Background and early career Husting was born April 25, 1866, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Husting moved with his parents to Mayville, Wisconsin, in 1876, where he received a common school education. From the age of 17 years, he became successively a retail clerk in a general store, a railway postal clerk, a mailing clerk in the Wisconsin State Prison at Waupun, and assistant bookkeeper in the office of the Secretary of State of Wisconsin under Thomas J. Cunningham.

Husting entered the University of Wisconsin Law School, passed the state bar examination, and was admitted to the bar in 1895. He initially practiced law in Mayville by himself, but in 1897 associated himself with C. W. Lamoreux until the latter was elected judge, upon which the firm of Husting & Brother was formed. He is interred on the Husting family plot at Graceland Cemetery in Mayville.

Husting's death was of political importance. In 1919 the Senate would have been under Democratic control had he not been succeeded by Republican Irvine Lenroot, as a consequence of which in 1919 the Senate had 49 Republicans and 47 Democrats (Vice-President Thomas R. Marshall was a Democrat, and had the power to break all ties).

Personal life and family Paul Husting was the second of seven children born to John P. and Mary M. ( Juneau) Husting. John P. Husting had emigrated to Wisconsin from the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg in 1855. Mary M. Juneau was the twelfth of sixteen children born to Solomon Juneau—the co-founder and first mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

His older brother, Charles Ottomar "Otto" Husting, served as Paul's private secretary in the U.S. Senate.

Electoral history Wisconsin Senate (1906, 1910)

U.S. Senate (1914)