About Russ Feingold
Russell Dana Feingold ( FYNE-gold; born March 2, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician who served from 1993 to 2011 as a United States senator from Wisconsin. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Wisconsin's 27th Senate district from 1983 to 1993 and was the U.S. Special Envoy for the African Great Lakes and the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2013 to 2015. In the Senate, Feingold was known for being the only U.S. senator to vote against the Patriot Act following the September 11 attacks. His signature legislative achievement was the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which he co-authored with Republican senator John McCain. Feingold and McCain received the 1999 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for their efforts. The law, commonly known as the McCain–Feingold Act, sought to limit the influence of money in federal elections, though key provisions were later weakened by court decisions, culminating in the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. FEC. Feingold was first elected to the Senate in 1992, defeating incumbent Bob Kasten, and was reelected in 1998 and 2004. He was mentioned as a potential candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination but did not run. After losing reelection in 2010 to Ron Johnson, he founded the political action committee Progressives United, which funded progressive candidates in the 2012 elections, before being appointed U.S. Special Envoy by President Barack Obama in 2013. Feingold unsuccessfully sought his former Senate seat in a 2016 rematch against Johnson. He served as president of the American Constitution Society from 2020 to 2025 and chairs the Campaign for Nature's Global Steering Committee. Feingold then went to Magdalen College at the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, where he graduated in 1977 with a first-class honours Bachelor of Arts in jurisprudence. Kasten responded to the ad with one of his own featuring another Elvis impersonator attacking Feingold's record. During the primary campaign, Feingold unveiled an 82-point plan that aimed to eliminate the deficit by the end of his first term. Feingold won by positioning himself as a quirky underdog who offered voters an alternative to what was seen by many as negative campaigning by opponents Jim Moody and Joe Checota.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.