Somebody Forgot to Tell Harry: Harry Reid’s Journey From Searchlight to Spotlight

Harry Reid: his name may be unknown to children outside Nevada, but his rise to the top of American politics is the story of the American Dream. Harry was a boy who had little hope of succeeding but with perseverance, luck and the support of people who felt he could make something of himself, he went from underdog to top dog. Reid grew up poor in a Nevada mining town well past its prime. His parents drank and his father beat his mother. Reid, himself, started fistfights, including against his teacher’s son and his future father-in-law, and was caught stealing. Since no high school existed in his hometown of Searchlight, he attended high school fifty miles away. His athletic abilities provided him with a college scholarship. To afford law school in Washington, D.C., he worked full-time as a Capitol Policeman while attending school. As a lawyer, he was proud of defending the underdog and helping to reduce the sentence of a man found guilty of murdering his parents under unusual circumstances. Reid’s rise in politics was uneven. At thirty he became the youngest Lieutenant Governor in the country. After losing the next few elections, his political career seemed over. His former history and boxing teacher who was governor of Nevada, offered him a job on the Nevada Gaming Commission. Reid cleaned-up the gaming industry in Nevada and uncovered a mob bomb in his car. The results he achieved on the gaming commission enabled him to renew his political ambitions. On-going controversies, close elections and Reid’s battle in 2010 to be re-elected to his Senate seat keep his story alive. The work takes the reader to the 2014 elections in which Democratic losses made him Senate Minority Leader.