Karl M. Le Compte

Rep. Karl M. Le Compte, 1953 from Congressional Pictorial Directory

Karl Miles Le Compte (May 25, 1887 – September 30, 1972) was a ten-term Republican U.S. Representative from south-central Iowa. He won ten consecutive races from 1938 to 1956, before choosing not to run again in 1958.

Born in Corydon, Iowa, Le Compte attended the public schools and graduated from the University of Iowa at Iowa City in 1909. One year later (in 1910) he became owner and publisher of the Corydon Times-Republican. In 1916, at age 29, he won election to the Iowa Senate, becoming its youngest member.^[1] In 1918, during the First World War he served as a private in the medical detachment of United States General Hospital No. 26, but did not serve overseas. His service in the Senate ended in 1921.

When Republican U.S. Representative Lloyd Thurston ran for the U.S. Senate in 1938, Le Compte ran for his seat in Iowa's 5th congressional district. In a successful bid for the Republican nomination in the primary, his advertisements stressed that he was "inalterably opposed to the New Deal Program of waste and extravagance."^[2] In the general election, he defeated Albia, Iowa Postmaster Ruth F. Hollingshead, the first woman to run for Congress in Iowa, and began serving in 1939. In his first term, he served on the Committee on Public Lands and the Committee on Insular Affairs. He was re-elected to his 5th district seat in 1940, before redistricting in 1941 retitled the same set of counties as Iowa's 4th congressional district. He was not seriously challenged until 1948, when attorney and Democrat Steven V. Carter first ran against Le Compte, and came within 4,000 votes of unseating Le Compte. Le Compte easily prevailed in the next three elections before Carter again came within 2,000 votes of unseating him in 1956. After the 1956 election, Carter filed a challenge against the result with the U.S. House, which decided two years later that Le Compte was properly declared the winner.

He served as chairman of the Committee on House Administration in the Eightieth Congress (from 1947 to 1948) and in the Eighty-third Congress (from 1953 to 1955).

Rather than running again in 1958, Le Compte retired, and Carter won the seat on his fourth attempt. In all, Le Compte served in Congress between January 3, 1939 and January 3, 1959.

After his last term in Congress, Le Compte returned to newspaper publishing. He later retired but continued as a contributing editor.

He died in Centerville, Iowa, on September 30, 1972. He was interred in Corydon Cemetery.

References

• Karl M. Le Compte at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa 1st W. Thompson Miller Henn A. Hall S. Curtis J. F. Wilson McCrary Stone McCoid B. Hall Gear Seerley Gear S. Clark Hedge Kennedy Kopp Eicher Martin Schwengel Schmidhauser Schwengel Mezvinsky Leach Nussle Braley Blum 2nd Leffler L. Clark J. P. Cook Thorington Davis Vandever Price Smyth W. Wolf Cotton Tufts Price Farwell Murphy Hayes G. Curtis Lane Rumple Wade Dawson Pepper Vollmer Hull Letts B. Jacobsen W. Jacobsen Talle L. Wolf Bromwell Culver Blouin Tauke Nussle Leach Loebsack 3rd Allison Donnan Ainsworth Burdick Updegraff Henderson Birdsall Pickett Connolly Sweet Robinson Willford Gwynne Gross Grassley Evans Nagle Lightfoot Boswell Latham Young 4th Grinnell Loughridge Walden Pratt Deering Weller Fuller Sweney Butler Updegraff Haugen Biermann Talle Le Compte Carter Kyl Bandstra Kyl N. Smith Ganske Latham King 5th Kasson G. Dodge Palmer J. Wilson R. Clark W. G. Thompson J. Wilson Frederick Kerr J. Hamilton Cousins Good Cole Thruston Le Compte Cunningham N. Smith Scherle Harkin Lightfoot Grandy Latham King 6th A. Hubbard Pomeroy Orr Loughridge Sampson Weaver Cutts J. C. Cook Cutts J. C. Cook Weaver Lacey White Lacey D. Hamilton Kendall Kirkpatrick Ramseyer Dowell Utterback Dowell Goodwin Cunningham Gilchrist J. I. Dolliver Coad Hoeven Greigg Mayne Bedell Grandy 7th Kasson Cummings E. Gillette Kasson H. Smith Conger Hays Hull Prouty Dowell Wearin Jensen Hansen Scherle 8th McDill Sapp Hepburn Anderson Flick Hepburn Jamieson Towner Evans Thurston Gilchrist Hoeven 9th Orr Oliver Carpenter Pusey Lyman Reed Bowman Hager McPherson W. Smith Green Vincent Swanson G. Gillette Harrington Narey 10th Holmes J. P. Dolliver Conner Woods Dickinson Gilchrist 11th Struble Perkins Thomas E. Hubbard Scott Steele Scott Boies Campbell AL Hastings and Leffler Terr Chapman A. Dodge

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.