Editing Everett Dirksen (section)

==U.S. representative==
===Elections===
In 1930, Dirksen unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Representative [[William E. Hull]] in the Republican primary. He lost by 1,155 votes, 51.06% to 48.94%. In 1932, he challenged Hull again, and won with 52.5% of the vote.<ref name="Garraty 1999 621">{{cite book |last=Garraty |first=John Arthur |date=1999 |title=American National Biography |volume=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UvApAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Early+in+his+House+career+Dirksen+gave+substantial+support+to+New+Deal+measures+while+positioning+himself+as+a+staunch+isolationist+in+foreign+policy+matters.%22 |location=New York, NY |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=621|isbn=9780195206357 }}</ref>

He was re-elected seven times from 1934 to 1946. His closest challenge came in 1936, when Charles C. Dickman held him to 53.25% of the vote amid a national and statewide landslide for the Democratic Party.

===Tenure===
His support for many [[New Deal]] programs initially marked him as a moderate, pragmatic Republican, though over time he became increasingly conservative and isolationist.<ref name="Garraty 1999 621"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Kinnell |first=Susan K. |date=1988 |title=People in History |volume=A-M |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=as8UAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Dirksen+supported+much+New+Deal+legislation+and+was+a+staunch+isolationist%22 |location=Santa Barbara, CA |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=153|isbn=9780874364941 }}</ref> During [[World War II]], he lobbied successfully for an expansion of congressional staff resources to eliminate the practice under which House and Senate committees borrowed executive branch personnel to accomplish legislative work. He reversed his isolationist stance to support the war effort, but also secured the passage of an amendment to the [[Lend Lease Act]] by introducing it while 65 of the House's Democrats were at a luncheon. It provided that the Senate and the House could, by a simple majority in a [[concurrent resolution]], revoke the war powers granted to the president.<ref>"Everett Dirksen". ''Current Biography 1941'', p.227; "260 to 165", ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', February 17, 1941</ref>

Dirksen studied law privately in Washington, D.C. after he was elected to Congress. He was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar in 1936 and the bar of Illinois in 1937.

In December 1943, Dirksen announced that he would be a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1944. He stated that a coalition of midwestern Republican representatives had urged him to run and that his campaign was serious. However, press pundits had assumed that the candidacy was a vehicle to siphon support away from the campaign of [[Wendell Willkie]], whose reputation as a maverick and staunch internationalist had earned him the hatred of many Republican Party regulars, especially in the [[Midwest]].<ref>''Time'', December 13, 1943</ref> Dirksen's presidential campaign was apparently still alive on the eve of the 1944 convention, as ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' speculated that he was running for vice president.<ref>''Time'', June 26, 1944</ref> Dirksen received no votes for either office from delegates at the convention.

In 1947, Dirksen was diagnosed with [[chorioretinitis]] in his right eye. Despite a number of physicians recommending that the eye be removed, Dirksen chose treatment and rest; he recovered most of the sight in the afflicted eye. In 1948, he declined to run for re-election because of his ailment.<ref name=TimeCover1962 />