Harry Micajah Daugherty (January 26, 1860–October 12, 1941) (daw-GER-tee) was an American politician. He is best known as a member of the Ohio Gang, the name given to the suppossed group of advisors surrounding president Warren G. Harding.

Daugherty, an Ohio Republican party boss, engineered Harding's ascendency to the Republican Party Presidential nominee at the 1920 Chicago Republican National Convention. The decision to propel Harding forward if the nomination wasn't decided on the first ballot, was made in what became known as in American politics as the smoke filled room in the Palmer House Hotel. Daugherty served as campaign manager for Harding in the U.S. presidential election of 1920. He ran the campaign based on Harding's affable personality and fairly neutral political stance, advocating a return to "normalcy" after World War I.

Harding won the Republican Party nomination after the vote deadlocked between Leonard Wood and Frank Lowden, an event whose possibility Daugherty had suggested months before in an interview. After Harding won the general election, he appointed Daugherty United States Attorney General.

He was the subject of a U.S. Senate investigation for his conduct as Attorney General (including his involvement in the Teapot Dome scandal) and resigned his position in 1924. Daugherty, however, was not found guilty in the investigation.

He wrote The Inside Story of the Harding Tragedy about his time in the Harding administration.

External link

• MCGRAIN v. DAUGHERTY, 273 U.S. 135 (1927) - US Supreme Court case