He ultimately graduated from Milwaukee Lutheran High School and worked briefly as a machine operator (becoming a member of the United Steel Workers) and salesman, before his 1960 election to the Assembly.
[6] While serving in the Assembly, Kessler earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1962, and after his term expired, he worked with Governor John Reynolds' staff on reapportionment litigation in 1964.
In the 1960s, he was part of Governor Reynolds' team arguing before the Wisconsin Supreme Court over the failure of the state Legislature to pass a new redistricting plan after the 1960 census.
[11] Governor Reynolds embraced the court-ordered map and called it, "the culmination of my four-year fight for equal voting rights for the people of the state of Wisconsin.
The 1970s redistricting was further complicated by the new federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 and accompanying U.S. Supreme Court opinions which set a legal mandate for states to seek equal representation in legislative districts.
Requirements in the Wisconsin Constitution created unique technical challenges to achieving equal representation, and the state government was under divided partisan control.
He also initiated a successful effort in 1979, to outlaw commercial surety bail bonding, resulting in Wisconsin becoming the fourth state to prohibit the practice.
[17] Kessler came in 2nd in the crowded ten-person Democratic primary, which included several past and current legislators, county supervisors, and the wife of Milwaukee mayor Henry Maier.
[22] On April 6, 2004, his wife Joan F. Kessler, a long-time member of the board of governors of the State Bar of Wisconsin, unseated incumbent Court of Appeals Judge Charles B. Schudson.
In November 2004, Fred Kessler returned to the Assembly, from the 12th District (northwestern Milwaukee, a part of Wauwatosa and one precinct in Waukesha County).
[24] In 2012, after a drastic redistricting by the Republican-controlled legislature removed his home from the 12th and changed the racial complexion completely,[25] Kessler faced a challenge in the Democratic primary from African-American newcomer Mario Hall, who was reported to be a school choice supporter with backing from the pro-voucher American Federation for Children and allied organizations.