Taft, Robert Alphonso (1889–1953)

US right-wing Republican senator from 1939, and a candidate for the presidential nomination 1940, 1944, 1948, and 1952. He sponsored the Taft–Hartley Labor Act of 1947, restricting union power. He was the son of President William Taft.

Taft was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and educated at Harvard and Yale universities. Known as ‘Mr Republican’, he was the standard-bearer of the conservative wing of the Republican Party, and he was lost in the liberal tide that swept the USA during the 1930s. He was further isolated by his resistance to US involvement against Nazi Germany, a view he held as late as 1943.

In 1952 his rejection for the Republican presidential nomination, in favour of Eisenhower, was interpreted as the end of an era in US Republicanism. After Eisenhower's election Taft became Senate majority leader.