Bob taft biography

American politician

Robert Alphonso Taft III (born January 8, 1942) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 67th governor of Ohio from 1999 to 2007. A member of the Taft political dynasty and Republican Party, Taft previously served in the Ohio House of Representatives, then as Hamilton County commissioner, and as Ohio Secretary of State under governor George Voinovich. He is a son of Senator Robert Taft Jr., a grandson of Senate majority leader Robert A. Taft, and a great-grandson of PresidentWilliam Howard Taft.

Taft was born in Boston and raised in Cincinnati. His first public office was representing the 65th district in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1977 to 1981. He then served as commissioner for Hamilton County from 1981 to 1990. Taft ran for lieutenant governor in 1986 but was unsuccessful. After that, he was elected Secretary of State of Ohio in 1990 and was reelected in 1994. Taft won the 1998 Ohio gubernatorial election with 50 percent of the vote and became governor in January 1999. In his first term, he had high

American politician (1889–1953)

"Mr. Republican" redirects here. For the former lieutenant governor of Alaska, see Jack Coghill.

"Senator Taft" redirects here. For other uses, see Senator Taft (disambiguation).

Robert Alphonso Taft Sr. (September 8, 1889 – July 31, 1953) was an American politician, lawyer, and scion of the Republican Party's Taft family. Taft represented Ohio in the United States Senate, briefly served as Senate majority leader, and was a leader of the conservative coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats who blocked expansion of the New Deal. Often referred to as "Mr. Republican", he co-sponsored the Taft–Hartley Act of 1947, which banned closed shops, created the concept of right-to-work states, and regulated other labor practices.

The elder son

Robert A. Taft
More than "Mr. Republican"

In 1947, Republican Senator Robert A. Taft was at the peak of his power, commanding a coalition of conservative Republicans and southern Democrats to thwart President Harry S. Truman's domestic agenda. Taft's most impressive achievement came in June. The labor-restricting Taft-Hartley Act survived Truman's veto and won Taft the admiration of the press corps. Yet he did not seek the highest political office in the Senate; indeed, the title "majority leader" would not precede his name until 1953. Taft finally accepted the role only after he deemed his ultimate goal–the presidency–to be out of reach. Just a few months after he took the majority leader title, however, he named a successor to the position. No one forced Taft out of the Senate leadership. In the end, a quick and unrelenting illness defeated the man who otherwise may have led the Senate for years to come.

Born in 1889 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Robert Alphonso Taft spent his young years in Ohio and the Phillippines, where his father, William Howard Taft, served as the islands' civil governor. Returning to the States, young Taft excelled at academics.  He graduated at the top of his class from a boarding school founded by his uncle, and then won honors at Yale and Harvard Law School while his father occupied the White House.

Rejected by the army due to his poor eyesight, Taft worked for the U.S. Food Administration during World War I. In 1919, the job sent him to Paris, where he distributed humanitarian aid and witnessed firsthand Europe's wartime devastation. A year later, he moved back to Cincinnati and, with his brother, established a law firm representing the interests of streetcar and railroad companies.

In 1921, Taft was elected to the Republican-dominated Ohio state legislature.  Financially conservative, he surprised some supporters by opposing Prohibition and taking a stand against the Ku Klux Klan. In his third term, he served as

Senator Robert A. Taft (1889-1953), son of President William Howard Taft, became known as "Mr. Republican" for helping to rebuild his party after the Great Depression and the Democratic dominance of the New Deal years. When the 1946 election gave the Republicans control of the Senate, Taft chose not to serve as majority leader. Instead, he chaired the Republican Policy Committee, where he helped plan his party's legislative agenda. He also chaired the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee and sponsored the Taft-Hartley Labor Act of 1947. When President Harry Truman called Congress into extraordinary session in 1948, Taft blocked all legislative action, inadvertently contributing to Truman's successful reelection. Taft did agree—reluctantly—to become Senate majority leader in January of 1953. Tragically, he died of cancer just seven months later, at the age of 64. In 1959 Congress dedicated the Taft Memorial Bell Tower on the Capitol grounds. That same year, his portrait was added to the Senate Reception Room, part of the Famous Five collection—perhaps the Senate's highest honor.

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