Russ Feingold, American lawyer and politician
Russell Dana Feingold ( FYNE-gold; born March 2, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator from Wisconsin from 1993 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was its nominee in the 2016 election for the same U.S. Senate seat he had previously occupied. From 1983 to 1993, he was a Wisconsin State Senator representing the 27th District.With John McCain, Feingold received the 1999 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. He and McCain cosponsored the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain–Feingold Act), a major piece of campaign finance reform legislation. He was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act during the first vote on the legislation.
Feingold was mentioned as a possible candidate in the 2008 presidential election, but in November 2006 announced he would not run. In 2010, Feingold lost his campaign for reelection to the U.S. Senate to Republican nominee Ron Johnson. On June 18, 2013, he was selected by Secretary of State John Kerry to replace R. Barrie Walkley as a special envoy to the Great Lakes region of Africa.On May 14, 2015, Feingold announced his candidacy for his old Senate seat in 2016. He was defeated by Johnson in a rematch of their 2010 Senate race. In 2020, Feingold became president of the American Constitution Society.