Harding lived in rural Ohio all his life, except when political service took him elsewhere. As a young man, he bought The Marion Star and built it into a successful newspaper. In 1899, he was elected to the Ohio State Senate; he spent four years there, then was elected lieutenant governor. He was defeated for governor in 1910, but was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1914. Democrats generally won Marion County's offices; when Harding ran for auditor in 1895, he lost, but did better than expected. Harding tried compromise, and gained passage of the bill in the House after the end of the excess profits tax was delayed a year. In the Senate, the tax bill became entangled in efforts to vote World War I veterans a soldier's bonus. Frustrated by the delays, on July 12, Harding appeared before the Senate to urge it to pass the tax legislation without the bonus. It was not until November that the revenue bill finally passed, with higher rates than Mellon had proposed.