Patricia M. Taft

Patricia Moore Taft, born on December 18, 1984, in Cincinnati, Ohio, is an American interior architectural designer and philanthropist. She is a member of the Taft political family, being the granddaughter of U.S. Senator Robert A. Taft and the great-granddaughter of U.S. President William Howard Taft and First Lady Helen Herron Taft.

Her parents are Lloyd Bowers Taft Sr., an investment banker involved in the early days of Taft Broadcasting, and Carolyn Moore Taft, a real estate consultant. She has several notable relatives: her uncle William Howard Taft III served as U.S. Ambassador to Ireland; her uncle Robert Taft Jr. was a U.S. Senator; her cousin Robert Alphonso Taft III served as Ohio Governor; and William Howard Taft IV is a diplomat.

Taft is of African-American descent and identifies as biracial and Black. In a 2023 interview, she expressed that her heritage includes both the lineage of a U.S. president and her Black heritage, noting that "the privilege of one does not negate the pain of the other."

She attended Cincinnati Country Day School, a private coeducational school. She graduated cum laude from Vanderbilt University, where she was a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority. She continued her education at Harrington College of Design, earning a Master of Arts degree in interior architecture.

Professionally, Taft has worked as an interior designer and architect in cities including New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. She was employed as an associate interior designer at Kara Mann Design in Chicago. She later founded Patricia Taft Studio, an interior design and architectural firm.

In addition to her design career, Taft is involved in various political, historic preservation, and educational initiatives. She serves on the board of trustees for the Society of Presidential Descendants and is a charter member and a member of the board of directors for the National First Ladies Day Commission. Through these roles, she advocates for honoring the contributions of U.S. First Ladies and has supported efforts to establish National First Ladies Day as a federal holiday, including efforts to include it on the National Day Calendar.

Her philanthropic and historic preservation activities also include involvement with the White House Historical Association and the Women's Suffrage National Monument Foundation.

In her personal life, Patricia Taft married Christopher Laurence Swaine, an investment consultant, on August 9, 2014. The wedding took place at Bealieu Garden in Rutherford, California, in a Presbyterian ceremony. The couple met in 2005 while both were high school students at the Cotillion Club of Cincinnati. They reside in Santa Monica, California, and have two daughters.

She holds an honorary lifetime membership to the University Club of Washington, D.C. Despite her prominent Republican family background, she publicly stated in 2008 that she voted for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.