Robert Jones Portman born December 19, is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Ohio from to In , Portman won a special election to represent Ohio's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He was reelected six times before resigning upon his appointment by President George W. Bush as the U. As trade representative, Portman initiated trade agreements with other countries and pursued claims at the World Trade Organization.
On January 25, , he announced that he would not seek a third term in His family was Presbyterian. In , Portman's grandfather Robert Jones purchased the Golden Lamb Inn in Lebanon, Ohio , and, together with his future wife Virginia Kunkle Jones, refurbished it and decorated it with antique collectibles and Shaker furniture.
When Portman was young, his father started the Portman Equipment Company, a forklift dealership where he and his siblings worked growing up.
Portman graduated from Cincinnati Country Day School in and attended Dartmouth College , where he started leaning to the right , and majored in anthropology and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Some describe his role there as a lobbyist; others say that such a description is inaccurate.
In , Portman entered a special election to fill the seat of Congressman Bill Gradison of Ohio's second congressional district , who had stepped down to become president of the Health Insurance Association of America. In the primary, Portman was criticized for his previous law firm's work for Haitian president Baby Doc Duvalier.
