Following a slow start in politics at the local level, including two terms as major of Northampton, MA, in 1911 Calvin Coolidge went to the state senate and began a full-time political career. Two years later he became president of the senate. Moving up the ladder, he was elected lieutenant governor of Massachusetts in 1915 and governor in 1918. As governor, he had to deal with the Boston police strike of 1919. On the second day of the strike he called out the state militia to restore order.

His popular action in his overall handling of the strike earned Coolidge the Republican vice presidential nomination in 1920. He was not the original choice, but won out. The Harding-Coolidge ticket won the election. Coolidge remained in the background as vice president. Harding died in office on August 2, 1923, and Coolidge moved up. His presidency was rather quiet, with Coolidge believing that the nation at that time needed to concentrate on its private affairs rather than to develop new public policies. During his administration, the economy prospered and the stock market boomed. The prosperity was not universal, with coal mining remaining depressed.