As a Senator, Wagner was a leader of the New Deal Coalition, putting special emphasis on supporting the labor movement.

Robert Ferdinand Wagner was born on June 8, 1877, in Nastätten, Hesse-Nassau, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire (now in Rhein-Lahn-Kreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, Federal Republic of Germany).

The family immigrated to the United States in 1885[2] and settled in New York City's Yorkville neighborhood, where Wagner attended the public schools.

In 1914, while Wagner remained President pro tempore, John F. Murtaugh was chosen Majority Leader of the State Senate.

They held a series of widely publicized investigations around the state, interviewing 222 witnesses and taking 3500 pages of testimony.

In the process, they changed Tammany's reputation from mere corruption to progressive endeavors to help workers.

Wagner, who had known the future President when they were in the New York state legislature together, was a member of Franklin Roosevelt's Brain Trust.

He was very involved in labor issues, fought for legal protection and rights for workers, and was a leader in crafting the New Deal.

In April 1943, a confidential analysis by British scholar Isaiah Berlin of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the British Foreign Office stated of Wagner: His most important legislative achievements include the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933 and the Wagner–Steagall Housing Act of 1937.

Wagner was instrumental in writing the Social Security Act, and originally introduced it in the United States Senate.

[12] On June 28, 1949, Wagner resigned from the Senate because of ill health; John Foster Dulles was appointed by Governor Thomas E. Dewey on July 7, 1949, to fill the vacancy temporarily.

Wagner was raised as a Lutheran, but he became a Methodist in his college years and taught Sunday school; he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1946.

His grandson, Robert (Bobby) Ferdinand Wagner III, was a Deputy Mayor, Director Urban Planning Commission and President of the New York City Board of Education in the 80s and 90s.