Ohio State Senate in the context of "James A. Garfield"

Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular presidents at the time of his death. After that, a number of scandals were exposed that greatly damaged his reputation.

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. Harding served in the Ohio State Senate from 1900 to 1904, and was lieutenant governor for two years. He was defeated for governor in 1910, but was elected to the United States Senate in 1914—the state's first direct election for that office. Harding ran for the Republican nomination for president in 1920, but was considered a long shot before the convention. When the leading candidates could not garner a majority, and the convention deadlocked, support for Harding increased, and he was nominated on the tenth ballot. He conducted a front porch campaign, remaining mostly in Marion and allowing people to come to him. He promised a return to normalcy of the pre–World War I period, and defeated Democratic nominee James M. Cox in a landslide to become the first sitting senator elected president.

The position of lieutenant governor of Ohio was established in 1852. The lieutenant governor becomes governor if the governor resigns, dies in office or is removed via impeachment conviction. Before 1852, the president of the Ohio State Senate would serve as acting governor if a vacancy in the governorship occurred. Until 1978, lieutenant governors were elected separately but concurrently with the governor (not on a "ticket"). Thus, there were several occasions when the lieutenant governor was from a different party than the governor. This was changed by constitutional amendment. In 1974, Richard F. Celeste was the last lieutenant governor to be elected separately. In 1978, George Voinovich became the first lieutenant governor to be elected on the same ticket with the governor.

From 1852 to 1979, the lieutenant governor also served as the president of the Ohio State Senate. More recently, Ohio governors have generally named the lieutenant governor to head an agency of state government. An example of this is Bruce Edward Johnson, who served as Director of the Ohio Department of Development, as did his successor, Lee Fisher. Recent Lt. Governor Mary Taylor was the director of the Ohio Department of Insurance, until she was replaced by Jillian Froment in 2017.

The president of the Ohio State Senate is the leader of the Ohio State Senate. Under Ohio's first constitution, in effect from 1803 to 1851, the presiding officer of the senate was called the speaker. Starting in 1851, when the second constitution took effect, a new office of lieutenant governor was created. The new position of lieutenant governor carried with it the office of president of the senate, and was nominally the presiding officer of the senate. During this time, the actual legislative leader of the senate majority was the president pro tempore of the Ohio Senate. In the 1970s, another change was made, which made the office of lieutenant governor elected jointly with the governor. At this time, the duty of presiding over the senate was removed from the lieutenant governor's portfolio and the majority party of the senate began electing its own president starting in 1979. The president is second in line to the office of the governor.