Whakaotihia te rerenga e whai ake nei: I muri i tana wikitoria i te pooti ki te Senate i te tau 1938 i runga i te kaitono Democrat a Robert J. Bulkley, i whai a Taft i nga wa katoa mo te tohu perehitini a te Republican, i te nuinga o te wa e whawhai ana mo te mana o te roopu me te roopu toharite o nga Republican i arahina e Thomas E. Dewey. I puta mai hoki ia hei kaitautoko kore-whakauru me te whakahe ki te whakauru o te US ki te Pakanga Tuarua o te Ao i mua o te 1941 Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor. Ko nga mahi a Taft kaore i raru i tana kaitono i te tau 1940, a ko te 1940 Republican National Convention i whakaingoatia a Wendell Willkie. I whai anō a Taft i te tūranga perehitini i te tau 1948, engari i hinga ia ki a Dewey i te
Ko te Huihuinga ā-Motu o te Reipa o te tau 1948. I whakahe ia ki te hanganga o te NATO me te whakahe i te whakahaere a te Perehitini Harry Truman mo te Pakanga Korea.