He served as the 31st Governor of Illinois, and received the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 1952 and 1956 ; both times he was defeated by Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Still, Eisenhower defeated Taft for the nomination ; Dirksen then supported Eisenhower's candidacy.

Eisenhower then defeated Governor Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr., of Illinois.

" With the help of Dewey, General Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Taft for the 1952 presidential nomination and became the leader of the moderates.

Eisenhower won all the Republican delegates and defeated Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, who had campaigned intensively in the state, by a vote of 50 % to 38 %.

New Hampshire has held a presidential primary since 1916, but it did not begin to assume its current importance until 1952 after the state simplified its ballot access laws in 1949 seeking to boost voter turnout, when Dwight Eisenhower demonstrated his broad voter appeal by defeating Robert A. Taft, " Mr. Republican ," who had been favored for the nomination, and Estes Kefauver defeated incumbent President Harry S. Truman, leading Truman to abandon his campaign for a second term of his own.

In 1952, he was defeated by Barry Goldwater in the national Republican landslide that year led by Dwight D. Eisenhower.

** United States presidential election, 1956: Republican incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Democratic challenger Adlai E. Stevenson in a rematch of their contest four years earlier.

In 1952, as Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower won the presidential election in a landslide, O ' Mahoney was narrowly defeated for re-election by Governor Frank A. Barrett by a margin of 52 %- 48 %.

In the United States, the administration of President William Howard Taft was progressive conservative and he described himself as " a believer in progressive conservatism " and President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared himself an advocate of " progressive conservatism ".

Eisenhower entered the 1952 presidential race as a Republican, to counter the non-interventionism of Senator Robert A. Taft, and to crusade against " Communism, Korea and corruption ".

A " Draft Eisenhower " movement in the Republican Party persuaded him to declare his candidacy in the 1952 presidential election to counter the candidacy of non-interventionist Senator Robert Taft.

In defeating Taft for the nomination, it became necessary for Eisenhower to appease the right wing Old Guard of the Republican Party ; his selection of Richard M. Nixon as the Vice-President on the ticket was designed in part for that purpose.

Senator Taft assisted the President greatly in working with the Old Guard, and was sorely missed when his death left Eisenhower with his successor William Knowland, whom Eisenhower disliked.

With Eisenhower refusing to run, the contest for the Republican nomination was between New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen, Ohio Senator Robert Taft, California Governor Earl Warren, General Douglas MacArthur and Arthur H. Vandenberg of Michigan, the senior Republican in the Senate.

Dewey played a key role in convincing Eisenhower to run against Taft, and when Eisenhower became a candidate Dewey used his powerful political machine to win Eisenhower the support of delegates in New York and elsewhere.

Other descendants were Ezra T. Benson and his grandson, Ezra Taft Benson, former Secretary of Agriculture under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, later 13th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

When Eisenhower finally consented, Lodge served as his campaign manager and played a key role in helping Eisenhower to win the nomination over Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, the candidate of the party's conservative faction.

Former Eisenhower cabinet member Ezra Taft Benson — a leading Mormon — spoke in favor of the John Birch Society, but in January 1963 the LDS church issued a statement distancing itself from the Society.

This helped Eisenhower to defeat Robert Taft on the first ballot.

MacArthur, however, favored U. S. Senator Robert A. Taft, Sr., of Ohio, who lost the nomination to Willkie in 1940, to Dewey in 1948, and to Dwight Eisenhower in 1952.

Containment was supported by Democrats and internationalist Republicans ( led by Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, Governor Thomas Dewey of New York, and general Dwight D. Eisenhower ), but was opposed by the isolationists led by Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio.

Four United States presidents visited Charlotte to participate in the Mecklenburg Day celebration: William Howard Taft ( 1909 ), Woodrow Wilson ( 1916 ), Dwight D. Eisenhower ( 1954 ), and Gerald Ford ( 1975 ).

In another instance, Ezra Taft Benson left active status in the quorum for a time when he was serving as the United States Secretary of Agriculture in the Eisenhower administration.

Ezra Taft Benson ( August 4, 1899 – May 30, 1994 ) was the thirteenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ( LDS Church ) from 1985 until his death and was United States Secretary of Agriculture for both terms of the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

* Papers of Ezra Taft Benson, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

* Ezra Taft Benson Oral History finding aid, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

Ironically no president we have had would have regretted more than President Eisenhower the possibility to which his own words, in the press conference held at the beginning of August, testified: that unable as he was himself to say his running was best for the country, unconsciously he had placed his party before his nation.

Drifting through a third illness, apparently without any provision for the handling of a major national emergency other than a talk with the vice-president, Eisenhower revealed the singularly static quality of his thinking.

Responsibility for the Faget appointment rests with Gen. J. M. Swing, an Eisenhower appointee as head of the Immigration Service.

Yet although the Kennedy Administration, and the Eisenhower Administration before it, have both declared themselves solidly for repeal of the Connally amendment, as contrary to our best interests, no action has yet been taken.

Four hundred million dollars of the increase is for the expanded space program, a responsibility similarly neglected by Mr. Eisenhower.

In the matter of money State's most unrelenting watchdog during the Eisenhower years was Representative John J. Rooney, of Brooklyn, who controlled the purse for diplomatic administrative expenses.

The size of Saud's family was still being debated when the King appeared for his first meeting with Eisenhower.

In 1949 the Dixiecrats escaped unscathed after their 1948 rebellion against Harry Truman, and in 1957, after Congressman Adam Clayton Powell campaigned for Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, his fellow Democrats did not touch his committee assignments, although they did strip him temporarily of his patronage.

McCarry served in the United States Army, where he was a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, has been a small-town newspaperman, and was a speechwriter in the Eisenhower administration.

* Since 2006, he is the chairman of the Board of Trustees for Eisenhower Fellowships

Eisenhower requested consideration for either Annapolis or West Point with his U. S. Senator, Joseph L. Bristow.

Though Eisenhower was among the winners of the entrance exam competition, he was beyond the age limit for the Naval Academy.

Controversy persists over whether Eisenhower played minor league baseball for Junction City in the Central Kansas League the year before he attended West Point, where he played amateur football.

After graduation in 1915, Lieutenant ( 2nd ) Eisenhower put in for assignment in the Phillipines which was denied, and served with the infantry, initially in supplies, until 1918 at various camps in Texas and Georgia.

In 1916, while stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Eisenhower was football coach for St. Louis College, now St. Mary's University.

In World War II rivals who had combat service in the first great war ( led by Gen. Bernard Montgomery ) sought to denigrate Eisenhower for his previous lack of combat duty, despite his stateside experience establishing a camp, completely equipped, for thousands of troops, and developing a full combat training schedule.

After the war, Eisenhower reverted to his regular rank of captain and a few days later was promoted to major, a rank he held for 16 years.

Indeed, the convoy averaged only 5 mph from Washington, D. C. to San Francisco ; later the improvement of highways became a signature issue for Eisenhower as President.

Eisenhower was even threatened with court martial for continued publication of these proposed methods of tank deployment, and he relented.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Eisenhower was assigned to the General Staff in Washington, where he served until June 1942 with responsibility for creating the major war plans to defeat Japan and Germany.

Eisenhower was severely criticized for the move ; but Darlan was assassinated later that year, and Eisenhower's command position was not affected.

The matter was a lesson learned for Eisenhower in terms of future communications with the Allied leaders.

Operation Torch also served as a valuable training ground for Eisenhower's combat command skills ; during the initial phase of Erwin Rommel's move into the Kasserine Pass, Eisenhower created some confusion in the ranks by some interference with the execution of battle plans by his subordinates.

But while Eisenhower argued with Roosevelt and Churchill, who both insisted on unconditional terms of surrender in exchange for helping the Italians, the Germans pursued an aggressive buildup of forces in the country – making the job more difficult, by adding 19 divisions and initially outnumbering the Allied forces 2 to 1, Nevertheless, the invasion of Italy was highly successful.