lived in rural Ohio all his life, except when political service took him elsewhere. As a young man, he bought The Marion Star, building it into a successful newspaper. In 1899, he was elected to the Ohio State Senateand after FOUR years there successfully ran for lieutenant governor. He was defeated for governor in 1910, but was elected to the United States SENATE in 1914. When Harding ran for the Republican nomination for president in 1920 he was considered a long shot until after the convention began. Then the leading candidates, such as General Leonard Wood, could not gain the needed majority and the convention deadlocked. Harding's support gradually grew until he was nominated on the 10th ballot. He conducted a front porch campaign, remaining for the most part in Marion and allowing the people to come to him. Running on a theme of a return to NORMALCY of the pre-WWI period, he won in a landslide over DEMOCRAT James M Cox and Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs and became the first sitting U.S. Senator to be elected president.