In 1918 , Walsh was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4 , 1919 , to March 3 , 1925 . He was the first Irish-Catholic Senator from Massachusetts . A noted orator , he introduced Irish Republic President Éamon de Valera at Fenway Park on June 29 , 1919 . At the Democratic National Convention in 1924 , he spoke in favor of condemning the Ku Klux Klan by name in the party platform : " We ask you to cut out of the body politic with the sharpest instrument at your command this malignant growth which , injected , means the destruction of everything which has made America immortal . If you can denounce Republicanism , you can denounce Ku Kluxism . If you can denounce Bolshevism , you can denounce Ku Kluxism . " Walsh failed to win reelection by just 20,000 votes in 1924 , the year of the Coolidge landslide , and briefly resumed the practice of law in Boston . Following the death of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge , the Republicans fought hard to retain his seat . Though Herbert Hoover and Charles Evans Hughes campaigned for his opponent , in the December 1926 special election Walsh won the right to complete the remaining two years of Lodge 's term , defeating William Morgan Butler , a friend of Coolidge and head of the Republican National Committee
Democratic National Convention in 1924
1924 Democratic National Convention
David I. Walsh