He supervised a complex system of civil defense and statewide services on the homefront during the war.

He planned an elaborate program to deal with the postwar reconversion of Connecticut's many warplane and munitions plants.

As chairman of a subcommittee of the Armed Services committee, Baldwin engaged in a long-running dispute with Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Exhausted by the highly publicized controversy, Baldwin resigned from the Senate in December 1949 to become a state judge.

He was assigned to officers' training school and was commissioned an ensign in February 1918, and promoted to lieutenant (j.g.)

During his tenure, he eliminated the state deficit without raising taxes; initiated a job-training program; created an inter-racial commission, and reformed the minor court system.

Also instituted were a Connecticut Veterans Advisory and Reemployment Commission; and a labor management council.

[5] He was elected United States Senator as a Republican on November 5, 1946, to fill the vacancy in the term ending January 3, 1947, caused by the death of Francis T. Maloney.