US Senator. Robert Rice Reynolds was an American politician who served as a Democratic US Senator from North Carolina from 1932 to 1945. With far-right ideologies, he has been described as having a flamboyant personality. Born into a pioneering family in North Carolina, whose ancestors fought in the American Revolution, he attended local schools in Asheville before attending a college preparatory school, Weaver College. In 1902 he entered the University of North Carolina and was popular in sports such as wrestling, track, and football. He joined the staff of the college newspaper, "The Tarheel," before working briefly with the "Washington Times" and "Asheville Magazine." He did not graduate from college but, after a year of studying law, was admitted to the bar and began a practice in 1908 with his brother. He first entered politics after being elected prosecuting attorney of the Fifteenth Judicial District, serving from 1910 to 1914. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Congress in 1914. During World War I, he served in the National Guard. While traveling in Europe, he announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor of North Carolina in 1924 but lost the Democrat nomination. In 1926 he was a candidate for the United States Senate but lost the vote. Running against former North Carolina Governor Cameron Morris, he announced his candidacy for the Senate in 1932 on a platform against Prohibition by repealing the 18th Amendment, decrease in federal taxes, ending immigration to America, and vigorous enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Being outspoken, he claimed to represent the poor with his humble, down-home speeches while blaming the Republican Party for the root of the Great Depression. Known to the voters as "Our Bob" or "Buncombe Bob," he was elected in a runoff with 65.4 percent of the vote. While in the Senate, he served on the Committee on Territories and Insular Affairs, Banking and Currency, Military Affairs, and the District of Columbia Committee, which he later chaired. Unlike most Southern politicians, he supported nearly all the New Deal legislation, including ones for the North Carolina Blue Ridge Parkway, Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, yet he failed to pass any of his planned immigration legislation, such as the Reynolds-Starnes Bill in 1936. As a passionate isolationist, he did not support the United States becoming involved in European politics. Although he had supported President Roosevelt's politics, he broke with Roosevelt over foreign policy. In January of 1939, with Adolph Hitler's politics becoming known worldwide, he formed an organization called The Vindicators Association, an all-Caucasian Christian patriotic group dedicated to 100 percent Americanism, with the goal of ending immigration, defense against alien enemies, and keeping the United States out of World War II. Even with the United States entering World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the organization continued its stance. The name of the organization was changed from the Vindicators to the American Nationalist Party in 1944, yet disbanded by October 1945. The group did publish a newspaper, "The American Vindicator," from his home. Another propaganda publication that he supported was Gerald L. K. Smith's monthly magazine "The Cross and the Flag." He collaborated with Smith on articles for a political newspaper, "The Defender," which was partly owned by Reynolds. He was the only Southern politician that voted in 1941 against the Lend-Lease Act, which would allow the United States to lend destroyers to Britain to fight the Nazis. His anti-immigrant proposals coincided with Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. For this, he was labeled a "pro-Nazi" in the political community and did not run for re-election in 1944. In 1950, he was a Democratic candidate without any success and made no further political attempts. He married five times. Following his retirement from the Senate, Reynolds briefly practiced law in Washington D.C. while living in Maryland. After the death of his fifth wife, he returned to Asheville with his young daughter. His memoir "Gypsy Trails: Around the World in an Automobile" was published in 1923.