to endorse him in the gubernatorial election in 1926 (because of his failure to support the 1924 Presidential candidacy of Robert M. La Follette Sr.), Zimmerman ran in the Republican primary election as an "independent" against both Progressive (Herman Ekern) and Stalwart (Charles B. Perry) candidates, as well as another "independent". Zimmerman won the Republican nomination and was elected by an absolute majority, outpolling Stalwart Perry (who came in second, running as an "Independent"), as well as the Democratic, Socialist, Prohibitionist and Socialist Labor candidates combined, with 350,927 votes out of 552,921. In 1928 he was defeated for re-nomination, running a poor third to Stalwart Walter J. Kohler Sr., and Progressive Congressman Joseph D. Beck. Thereafter he went into a political decline for several years, briefly holding a position in the Beverage Tax Commission in 1936. Secretary of State once more Zimmerman was nominated and elected Secretary of State on the Republican ticket in 1938 and served until his death, polling a larger vote at each subsequent election and in 1952 again received the highest total ever given any candidate for any office in the state. Private life Zimmerman was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1916, 1920, 1924, 1940, and 1944. He was attacked as a member of America First, but he denied membership therein, although he generally followed the isolationist position. He died in Milwaukee in 1954 just after again winning re-election as Secretary of State. References Further reading "Former Governors of Wisconsin, 1848-1960: Fred R. Zimmerman" in Toepel, M. G.; Kuehn, Hazel L., eds. The Wisconsin blue book, 1960 Madison: State of Wisconsin, 1960; pp. 167-170. 1880 births 1954 deaths American people of German descent Republican Party members of the Wisconsin State Assembly Republican Party governors of Wisconsin Secretaries of State of Wisconsin Politicians from Milwaukee 20th-century American politicians