Born in Corsica, Ohio, Warren G. Harding studied at Ohio Central College. He became a journalist for the Marion Star newspaper in Ohio. By 1884 he was the owner and editor of the paper. That same year he joined the Republican Party. Harding served in the Ohio state senate from 1899 to 1902 and was the lieutenant governor of Ohio from 1903 to 1904. He was unsuccessful in two campaigns for the governorship, but was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1915. In 1920 Republican party bosses selected Harding as a compromise candidate for president. Harding called for a “return to normalcy” after World War I and won the election in a landslide. Harding favored protective tariffs and opposed the League of Nations. He died in 1923 while on a speaking tour in San Francisco. After his death, the corruption within his cabinet, including the Teapot Dome Scandal, was exposed.
