Lee S. Overman (1853-1930), won a Senate seat in 1903 as a Democrat from North Carolina in opposition to the reforms advocated by a fusion of Populists and Republicans in his state. Once in office, however, he identified himself with much of the reform legislation of the progressive era. After Democrats took the majority and Woodrow Wilson won the presidency in 1912, Overman chaired the Senate Rules Committee and was a ranking member of his party on the Judiciary and Appropriations Committees. He advocated banking and currency reforms that eventually became the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, and worked for passage of the Clayton Anti-Trust Act in 1914. Overman loyally supported President Wilson's foreign policies prior to the First World War, and later fought for passage of the Treaty of Versailles at the war's end.
