William E. Borah “The Lion of Idaho”

William Edgar Borah, the longest serving United States Senator in Idaho history, assumed his seat in the Senate in 1907. He is arguably the most famous politician Idaho ever produced. Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for nine years, presidential possibility for nearly a quarter of a century, “the most famed Senator of the century” according to Time magazine in 1936, Borah remains an elusive figure in 20th Century political history. Largely forgotten in his adopted state nearly 70 years after his death, although a Boise high school and the state’s highest mountain carry his name, Borah was once a towering figure – the Lion of Idaho, the 20th Century Senate’s greatest orator, a politician who was above all fiercely “independent” and the kind of Senator the Founding Fathers envisioned steering the fate of the nation and the world.