Lyndon Baines Johnson was born in 1908 in rural southwestern Texas and grew up in a household saturated with politics. He went to Washington in 1931 as a secretary to Representative Richard Kleberg. He returned to Texas in 1935 as the state director of the National Youth Administration. Johnson defeated nine other candidates in 1937 to win a special election to the U.S. House of Representatives. In the 1948 Democratic primary for senator, his eighty-seven-vote margin of victory brought charges of fraud and earned Johnson the mocking nickname “Landslide Lyndon.” Despite the charges and mockery, Johnson became a master of the legislative process. He worked two years as Senate majority whip, two as Senate minority leader, and six as Senate majority leader.