Thomas E. Watson

Who was Thomas E. Watson?

Thomas Edward "Tom" Watson was an American politician, attorney, newspaper editor, and writer from Georgia. In the 1890s Watson championed poor farmers as a leader of the Populist Party, articulating an agrarian political viewpoint while attacking business, bankers, railroads, Democratic President Grover Cleveland, and the Democratic Party. He was the nominee for vice president with William Jennings Bryan in 1896 on the Populist ticket.

Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1890, Watson pushed through legislation mandating Rural Free Delivery, the "biggest and most expensive endeavor" ever instituted by the U.S. postal service. Politically he was a leader on the left in the 1890s, calling on poor whites to unite against the elites. However after 1900 he shifted to Nativist attacks on blacks, and Catholics. Two years prior to his death, he was elected to the United States Senate.