George Smathers of Florida: The Making of a U.S. Senator

I often wonder how someone becomes a politician. The routines, and even the threshold acts of politics, seem foreign to me. This piece explores how and why Senator GEORGE SMATHERS of Florida became a Senator. <img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:206/0*UIEdgv6P2sLR-z0Q" style="height:245px; width:206px" /> George Smathers Smathers was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1913, and raised to be a politician. His father Benjamin Franklin Smathers, a colorful character from Waynesville, North Carolina, loved politics, just adored everything about it, and wanted to be smack in the middle of it. Benjamin was a good enough baseball player to get a pro contract. He came to Newark, New Jersey to play minor league ball but, on a whim, took and passed the bar exam, retired from baseball and set up shop as a lawyer — and an organizer for the Democratic Party. <a href="https://medium.com/@andrewszanton/george-smathers-of-florida-the-making-of-a-u-s-senator-463e8446b815">Website</a>