Robert Alphonso Taft Jr. was an American politician. He was a member of the Taft family who served as a Republican Congressman from Ohio between 1963 and 1965, as well as between 1967 and 1971. Taft also served as a U.S. Senator between 1971 and 1976.
Official portrait, 1971
Robert Alphonso Taft Sr. 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.
Taft during his Senate tenure, from the US Senate Historical Office collection
Rudolf Anton Bernatschke's portrait of Taft standing in front of what would later become the Frances Perkins Department of Labor Building on Constitution Avenue.