Samuel M. Shortridge Politician
Samuel Morgan Shortridge (August 3, 1861 – January 15, 1952) was a Republican Senator from California.He was born in Mount Pleasant, Iowa and moved to California as a child with his family, which settled in San Jose in 1875. He practiced law in San Francisco, California for most of his life.He lost the 1914 U.S. Senate Republican primary to veteran congressman Joseph R. Knowland, who was defeated in the general election by James D. Phelan. Shortridge was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1920, riding Warren G. Harding's post World War I "Return to Normalcy" campaign. Defeating Phelan and strong candidates from the Prohibition Party and Socialist Party of America, Shortridge won the general election with 49% of the vote. He was reelected in 1926 with 63% of the vote over Democrat John B. Elliott. He served two full terms before being defeated in a primary in 1932. His sister Clara S. Foltz became the first female lawyer in California in 1878, and first female deputy district attorney in the US in 1910. She helped him campaign for the Senate.Shortridge served as a special attorney for the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. from 1939 to 1943. He died in Atherton, California and was buried in Oak Lawn Cemetery in San Jose.
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