Glen Hearst Taylor (April 12, 1904 – April 28, 1984) was an American politician, entertainer, businessman, and U.S. senator from Idaho. He was the vice presidential candidate on the Progressive Party ticket in the 1948 election. Taylor was otherwise a member of the Democratic Party. By one measure, Taylor was the second-most liberal member of the U.S. Senate, trailing only Wayne Morse of Oregon, and the fourth-most liberal member of Congress overall between 1937 and 2002. Early life Born in a boarding house in Portland, Oregon, Taylor was the twelfth of thirteen children of Pleasant John Taylor and Olive Higgins Taylor. His father was a retired Texas ranger and wandering preacher, and the family was with him in Portland for a protracted soul-saving meeting. The family homesteaded in North Central Idaho, near Kooskia, and Taylor attended the public schools. In 1919, after completing eighth grade, he joined his older brother's stock theater company, and between 1926 and 1944, he became the owner and manager of various entertainment enterprises. Taylor was also a country-western singer; his older sister, Lena, became famous as a jazz singer under the name Lee Morse in the 1920s. Taylor was inspired to run for political office by King Camp Gillette's book The People's Corporation and Stuart Chase's 1932 book A New Deal. In 1935 Taylor unsuccessfully attempted to organize a Farmer–Labor Party in Nevada and Montana. Career By the late 1930s, Taylor had settled in Eastern Idaho at Pocatello. His first political campaign was in 1938 for an open seat in the United States House of Representatives from the second district, but he finished a distant fourth in the Democratic primary. Taylor first ran for the United States Senate in 1940 in a special election to fill the remaining term of the late William Borah, but lost to appointee John W. Thomas, with 47.1 to 52.9 percent. Despite being labeled as "semi-socialistic" and "communistic," he ran again in 1942 against Thomas and lost a closer race, 48.5 to 51.5 percent. Taylor lost both elections to Thomas because of stiff opposition from state Democratic Party leaders. Between elections, Taylor supported himself as a painter's assistant and sheet metal worker in California. In his third try for the Senate, Taylor ran for the other Idaho seat in 1944, defeating conservative incumbent D. Worth Clark in the Democratic primary, and Governor C. A. Bottolfsen in the general election. Taylor,