Robert Foster Bennett (September 18, 1933 – May 4, 2016) was an American politician and businessman. He was a United States Senator from Utah as a member of the Republican Party. Bennett held chairmanships and senior positions on a number of key Senate committees, including the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee; Appropriations Committee; Rules and Administration Committee; Energy and Natural Resources Committee; and Joint Economic Committee..
Bennett was a popular and reliably conservative senator for most of his tenure, earning high ratings from conservative activist groups such as the National Rifle Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and American Conservative Union.
However, in 2010 Bennett became one of the most prominent targets of the Tea Party Movement, which criticized his support of the Bush Administration’s bank bailout and argued that Bennett was insufficiently conservative. Despite an enthusiastic endorsement from Mitt Romney, Bennett was denied a place on the primary ballot by the 2010 Utah State Republican Convention, placing third behind two Tea-Party-backed candidates.
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