was his run for the Indiana Senate in 1924 as a Democrat. After losing the race, he retained his cashier position and continued there until 1932, when he again ran and won. During his term in the Indiana Senate, he drafted legislation to create a new circuit court district for Starke County. Another important bill he created was one to create a tenure system for state teachers, which guaranteed the teachers they would remain employed by the state upon completing a certain number of years in state service. A third bill created a pension fund for firemen in the state. All three bills were passed and signed into law. Lieutenant governor He was nominated to run again for re-election to the Senate in 1936, but turned down the nomination after Governor Paul V. McNutt arranged for the convention to nominate him to run for Lieutenant Governor of Indiana, on a ticket with M. Clifford Townsend. McNutt was considered to be significantly more conservative than Townsend, and party leaders believed Schricker would help draw more Republican votes. Townsend and Schricker won the election and took office in January 1937. As President of the Democratic-controlled Senate, Schricker helped pass welfare measures supported by Townsend. As lieutenant governor, he was also head of the state's agricultural department and spent considerable time traveling around the state for meetings with leaders of farming communities. The state party was in the midst of a dispute during his term, with the McNutt and Frederick Van Nuys faction opposing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan to stack the US Supreme Court. Roosevelt intervened in the state party affairs, and with the support of Townsend, he attempted to remove the state's senators, who were blocking his plan. Schricker did not takes sides in the debate, which McNutt ultimately won, but tried to avoid the Capitol. His traveling effectively turned into a four-year campaign for the governorship as he gained support around the state. At the 1940 state Democratic Party Convention, Schricker won the nomination for governor on the second ballot, winning the majority of the delegates from the rural parts of the state. Opinion had turned strongly against the Democrats in the last year, primarily over welfare spending. To win the election, Schricker focused on his personal popularity rather than his connection to the party. He won the election by fewer than 4,000 votes and was the only Democrat elected