Changes

Because of continued  corruption in Tammany Hall, Javits though a liberal joined the Republican-Fusion Party and supported colorful New York [[Mayor]] [[Fiorello La Guardia]], namesake of one of the city's airports. His liberalism tended to isolate him from his Republican colleagues. One scoring method found Javits to be the most liberal Republican to serve in either chamber of Congress between 1937 and 2002.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170526063634/https://legacy.voteview.com/Is_John_Kerry_A_Liberal.htm|author=Keith T. Poole|title=Is John Kerry a Liberal?|date=May 26, 2017|publisher=voteview.com|accessdate=May 25, 2020}}</ref>

Because of continued  corruption in Tammany Hall, Javits though a liberal joined the Republican-Fusion Party and supported colorful New York [[Mayor]] [[Fiorello La Guardia]], namesake of one of the city's airports. His liberalism tended to isolate him from his Republican colleagues. One scoring method found Javits to be the most liberal Republican to serve in either chamber of Congress between 1937 and 2002.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170526063634/https://legacy.voteview.com/Is_John_Kerry_A_Liberal.htm|author=Keith T. Poole|title=Is John Kerry a Liberal?|date=May 26, 2017|publisher=voteview.com|accessdate=May 25, 2020}}</ref>

In 1946, as part of the Republican wave that led to a GOP Congress for two years, Javits was elected to the [[United States House of Representatives]] for the New York 21st congressional district, then based in the Upper West Side. He left the House on January 3, 1955, to  become the attorney general of New York, a post he filled for only two years. In the attorney general's contest, he defeated the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. (1914-1988), son of the former president. Representative Javits supported Democratic President [[Harry S. Truman]] in [[Cold War]] foreign policy and later voted for the [[Marshall Plan]] to rebuild [[Europe]] after the war. He was elected in 1956 to the U.S. Senate, having defeated Democrat Robert Ferdinand Wagner, Jr. (1910-1991), who was in his second year as the mayor of New York City and then an ally of Tammany Hall. Javits won re-election to the Senate in 1962, 1968, and 1974, when he defeated a candidate even more liberal than he, former U.S. Attorney General William Ramsey Clark (born 1927) despite losing many Republican votes to a determined Conservative Party nominee, Barbara A. Keating, an opponent of [[abortion]].<ref name=nytobit/>​

In 1946, as part of the Republican wave that led to a GOP Congress for two years, Javits was elected to the [[United States House of Representatives]] for the New York 21st congressional district, then based in the Upper West Side but since redistricted. He left the House on January 3, 1955, to  become the attorney general of New York, a post he filled for only two years. In the attorney general's contest, he defeated the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. (1914-1988), son of the former president. Representative Javits supported Democratic President [[Harry S. Truman]] in [[Cold War]] foreign policy and later voted for the [[Marshall Plan]] to rebuild [[Europe]] after the war. He was elected in 1956 to the U.S. Senate, having defeated Democrat Robert Ferdinand Wagner, Jr. (1910-1991), who was in his second year as the mayor of New York City and then an ally of Tammany Hall. Javits won re-election to the Senate in 1962, 1968, and 1974, when he defeated a candidate even more liberal than he, former U.S. Attorney General William Ramsey Clark (born 1927) despite losing many Republican votes to a determined Conservative Party nominee, Barbara A. Keating, an opponent of [[abortion]].<ref name=nytobit/>​

In the House and Senate, Javits established himself as a [[Moderate Republican|liberal Republican]] and supporter of [[Governor]] [[Nelson Rockefeller]], fellow Senator Kenneth Barnard  Keating (1900-1975), and Mayor [[John V. Lindsay]]. He opposed the [[Taft-Hartley Act]] of 1947, which had broad conservative support -- enough to override Truman's veto of the measure. He also backed much of later President Johnson's [[Great Society]] and was always a steadfast supporter of [[civil rights]] legislation passed in 1957, 1960, and 1964. He backed the constitutional amendment to ban the use of poll taxes and in 1954 unsuccessfully sought to enact a bill banning [[segregation]] in federally funded housing projects.

In the House and Senate, Javits established himself as a [[Moderate Republican|liberal Republican]] and supporter of [[Governor]] [[Nelson Rockefeller]], fellow Senator Kenneth Barnard  Keating (1900-1975), and Mayor [[John V. Lindsay]]. He opposed the [[Taft-Hartley Act]] of 1947, which had broad conservative support -- enough to override Truman's veto of the measure. He also backed much of later President Johnson's [[Great Society]] and was always a steadfast supporter of [[civil rights]] legislation passed in 1957, 1960, and 1964. He backed the constitutional amendment to ban the use of poll taxes and in 1954 unsuccessfully sought to enact a bill banning [[segregation]] in federally funded housing projects.