Thomas Brackett Reed (October 18, 1839 – December 7, 1902), was an American politician from the state of Maine. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives 12 times, first in 1876, and served as Speaker of the House, from 1889 to 1891 and again from 1895 to 1899. Reed helped pass the Lodge Bill, which sought to protect African American voting rights in the Southern United States, but the bill failed to pass in the Senate and never became law. He opposed the Spanish–American War and resigned from Congress in 1899.