Kammala wannan jumla: Bayan lashe zaben majalisar dattijai a 1938 a kan Democrat mai suna Robert J. Bulkley, Taft ya nemi takarar shugabancin Republican, sau da yawa yana gwagwarmaya don kula da jam'iyyar tare da jam'iyyar Republican da Thomas E. Dewey ya jagoranci. Ya kuma fito a matsayin fitaccen mai ba da izinin shiga tsakani kuma ya yi adawa da shigar Amurka cikin Yaƙin Duniya na II kafin Harin Japan na 1941 a Pearl Harbor. Taft ba shi da wata matsala da ya yi wa 'yan takararsa na 1940, kuma Jam'iyyar Republican ta 1940 ta zabi Wendell Willkie. Taft ya sake neman shugabancin a 1948, amma ya rasa Dewey a zaben.
Babban Taron Jam'iyyar Republican na shekarar 1948. Ya yi adawa da ƙirƙirar NATO kuma ya soki Shugaba Harry Truman na kula da Yakin Koriya.