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Re-entering politics, Harding won election to the United States Senate in 1914, serving from 1915 until Friday, March 4, 1921 and earning the distinction of becoming the first sitting Senator to be elected President.
As was the case during his first tenure as a Senator, Harding was relatively indistinguished, missing over two-thirds of the roll-call votes - among them the vote to send the 19th amendment (granting Women's Suffrage) to the states for ratification.
Main Article: U.S. presidential election, 1920
A relative unknown outside his own state, Harding was a true "dark horse" candidate, winning the Republican party nomination due to the political machinations of his friends. Before receiving the nomination, he was asked whether there were any embarrassing episodes in his past that might be used against him. He had a very limited formal education, suffered from depression, had spent several years in a sanitarium, had a rocky relationship with his wife (whom he referred to as "the Duchess"), had a longstanding affair with the wife of an old friend, and was a heavy drinker despite Prohibition. Although he answered "no," each of these issues was raised by his opponents during his presidency.
In the 1920 election, Harding ran against Democrat Ohio Governor James M. Cox, whose vice presidential candidate was Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The election was considered a referendum on whether to continue with the progressive work of the Woodrow Wilson administration or to go back to the laissez-faire approach of the William McKinley administration.
Harding ran on a promise to "return to normalcy," which reflected three trends of his time: a renewed isolationism, a resurgence of nativism, and a turning away from the government activism of the progressive era.
During the campaign, rumors were printed that Harding's great-great-grandfather was a West Indian black and that other blacks lurked in his family tree. In response, Harding's campaign manager said "No family in the state [of Ohio] has a clearer, a more honorable record than the Hardings, a blue-eyed stock from New England and Pennsylvania, the finest pioneer blood." To a friend, however, Harding confided that maybe one of his ancestors "jumped the fence." These rumors, perhaps based on no more than local Ohio gossip, were circulated by William Estabrook Chancellor.
Harding received 61% of the national vote and 404 electoral votes. Cox received 36% of the national vote and 127 electoral votes. Eugene V. Debs, campaigning from Federal prison, received 3% of the national vote. The election of 1920 marked a milestone in that it was the first election in which women were allowed to vote.
As President, Harding played both golf and poker twice a week. Although as a U.S. senator from Ohio, he had voted for Prohibition, Harding kept the White House well-stocked with bootleg liquor. He attended baseball games regularly.
Upon winning the election, he placed many of his old allies and cronies in prominent political positions. Known as the " Ohio Gang," (A term used by Charles Mee Jr. for his book of the same name) some of the appointees used their new powers to rob the government. Corruption was rampant throughout Harding's administration, though it is uncertain how much Harding actually knew about his friends' illicit activities. One of the most famous scandals of the time was the Teapot Dome scandal, which shook the nation for many years after Harding's death. The scandal involved Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, who was eventually convicted of renting public oil fields to private concerns in exchange for personal loans. In 1931 Fall became the first member of Cabinet to be sent to prison.
Thomas Miller, head of the Office of Alien Property, was convicted of accepting bribes. Jess Smith, personal aide to the Attorney General destroyed papers and then committed suicide. Charles Forbes, Director of the Veterans Bureau , skimmed profits, earned fat kickbacks, and ran alcohol and drugs. He was convicted of fraud and bribery, and drew a two-year sentence. Charles Cramer, an aide to Charles Forbes, committed suicide.
No evidence to date suggests that Harding personally profited from these crimes, but he seemed unable to stop them. "My God, this is a hell of a job!" Harding said. "I have no trouble with my enemies, but my damn friends, they're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights."
Throughout his administration, Harding adopted a laissez-faire attitude, and there are few lasting achievements to his name. One important event, however, was the Washington Naval Conference of 1921- 1922, which at Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes' instigation limited the size of navies and reduced tension between the US, the UK and Japan in the Pacific. Also notable was the establishment of the Bureau of the Budget (now the Office of Management and Budget), which increased the powers of the president by directing departmental spending plans to him rather than to Congress.
It should be pointed out that Harding did appoint some good, smart and honest men to places within his Cabinet, including, most significantly, Hughes, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, Secretary of War John W. Weeks, Postmaster General Will Hays, and Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace . Wallace was the father of Henry A. Wallace, the future Agriculture Secretary, Vice President, Commerce Secretary and 1948 presidential candidate.
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