Representative Albert David Baumhart

Albert David Baumhart Jr. (June 15, 1908 – January 23, 2001) was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio who served in Congress from 1941 to 1942, and again from 1955 to 1961. Over the course of his congressional career, which spanned four terms in office, he represented the interests of his Ohio constituents during a significant period in American history and contributed to the legislative process as a member of the House of Representatives.

Baumhart was born on June 15, 1908, in Vermilion, Erie County, Ohio. His early life was marked by personal loss when his mother died at the age of 35 in 1918 during the Spanish flu epidemic, an event that occurred when he was still a child. He was raised in northern Ohio and maintained lifelong ties to his hometown and region, which would later form the base of his political support.

He pursued higher education at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where he completed both undergraduate and graduate studies. Baumhart received his A.B. degree and his M.A. degree in 1931. His academic training provided a foundation for his later work in communications, public relations, and public service, and linked him to one of Ohio’s major public universities at a time when higher education was becoming increasingly important in political and professional life.

After completing his education, Baumhart worked in the private sector as a publishing house representative in Vermilion, Ohio, from 1932 to 1939. While engaged in this work, he entered public life at the state level. He served as a member of the Ohio State Senate from 1937 to 1940, gaining legislative experience and establishing himself within the Republican Party in Ohio. His state senate service coincided with the later years of the Great Depression, a period that shaped the policy debates in which he participated.

Baumhart was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-seventh Congress and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1941 to 1942. Throughout 1940 and most of 1941, he was known as an “interventionist Republican,” advocating that the United States enter the war in Europe against Nazi Germany in order to assist the United Kingdom prior to the nation’s formal entry into World War II. His first period in Congress thus placed him at the center of the national debate over foreign policy and American involvement in the war. On September 2, 1942, he resigned his seat in Congress to accept a commission in the United States Navy, reflecting his support for the war effort through active military service.

During World War II, Baumhart served in the United States Navy and was discharged as a lieutenant commander on January 17, 1946. Following his military service, he returned to Ohio and entered the corporate sector. From 1946 to 1953, he was a member of the public relations staff of Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corporation in Toledo, Ohio, where he worked in communications and public affairs for a major industrial firm. His growing prominence within the Republican Party led to his appointment as director of the Republican National Committee in 1953 and 1954, a national-level role that placed him at the center of party organization and strategy during the early years of the Eisenhower administration.

Baumhart returned to elective office when he was again elected as a Republican to the Eighty-fourth, Eighty-fifth, and Eighty-sixth Congresses, serving from 1955 to 1961. In this second period of congressional service, he participated in key legislative debates of the postwar era. He voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Act of 1960, supporting landmark federal civil rights legislation aimed at protecting voting rights and strengthening enforcement of constitutional guarantees. His service in Congress during these years reflected both his party affiliation and his engagement with major national issues of civil rights and governance. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1960, thereby concluding his tenure in the House of Representatives that had begun in 1941 and encompassed four terms in office.

After leaving Congress, Baumhart continued to be active in Republican politics and public affairs. He served as a delegate to the 1968 Republican National Convention, maintaining his involvement in national party activities. Professionally, he worked as a public relations consultant, drawing on his extensive experience in communications, corporate public relations, and political strategy. In this capacity, he remained engaged in the public sphere even after his formal legislative career had ended.

Albert David Baumhart Jr. died on January 23, 2001, in Lorain, Ohio. He was interred at Maple Grove Cemetery in Vermilion, Ohio, returning in death to the community where he had been born and with which he had been closely associated throughout his life.