(jaunty guitar music)

- C'mon, Ohio, I'm waiting.

You know Ohio has been home to the most presidents, right?

So surely a new one should be coming any time now.

I mean, Warren G. Harding who served from 1921 to 1923,

was the most recent, and that was almost 100 years ago.

Harding was born in Blooming Grove, Ohio

in November of 1865.

At the young age of 19, he purchased a newspaper,

"The Marion Daily Star."

But competition was stiff,

and "The Star" struggled to make money.

It wasn't until Harding brought his wife

Florence Kling DeWolfe on board that things changed.

With Florence focused on the finances,

Warren went to work writing,

editing, and finding advertisers.

Harding's political career began in 1898

when he was elected as a Republican to the Ohio Legislature,

and then lieutenant governor in 1903.

In 1914, he became a U.S. senator.

Like many in his party, Harding endorsed

the Eighteenth Amendment, which called for prohibition.

Prohibition is a ban on making,

selling, and transporting alcohol.

Still, Harding didn't really think laws

were the solution to a problem with alcohol.

In 1920, after 10 rounds of voting,

the Republican Party selected Harding as their nominee.

He went on to be elected to 29th president

with more than 60% of the popular vote.

This made Harding the first sitting senator

to win a presidential election.

Harding promised to return the nation to normalcy

after the hardships of World War I.

While in office, he organized the Veterans' Bureau

to help injured World War I soldiers

receive treatment and job retraining.

However, he vetoed a bill which would've provided vets

with bonus pay, claiming the country

did not have the money, a nod to his tight grip on spending.

Harding was an advocate

for equal civil rights for African Americans.

During a segregated speech in Birmingham, Alabama,

he said, "Whether you like it or not,

"our democracy is a lie unless you stand for that equality."

Historians agree that Harding's presidency was pretty weak.

He invited lots of his friends

to serve in powerful positions,

and that led to scandals and corruption.

People even refer to them as the Ohio Gang.

Perhaps the best known scandal was the Teapot Dome scandal,

when the secretary of the interior accepted bribes

from others so they could use government oil reserves.

Harding tried to boost the people's confidence

in him through a speaking trip.

He was the first U.S. president to visit Alaska and Canada

in 1923 on his "Voyage of Understanding."

Harding took this trip across the country

to hear firsthand from citizens about how they were doing

and what his administration could do to help.

While in Alaska, he set out to determine

how to protect and responsibly use

the state's natural resources.

During the "Voyage of Understanding,"

Harding unexpectedly died of a heart attack

in San Francisco on August 2, 1923.

Serving only two years, Harding joined

fellow Ohio presidents William Henry Harrison

and James A. Garfield in have one of the shortest terms.

(lively music)