He then raised $300 (equivalent to $8,700 in 2021) in partnership with others to purchase a failing newspaper, The Marion Star, the weakest of the city's three papers, and its only daily. The 18-year-old Harding used the railroad pass that came with the paper to attend the 1884 Republican National Convention, where he hobnobbed with better-known journalists and supported the presidential nominee, former Secretary of State James G. Blaine. Harding returned from Chicago to find that the paper had been reclaimed by the sheriff for outstanding debts.[12] During the election campaign, Harding worked for the Marion Democratic Mirror and was annoyed at having to praise the Democratic presidential nominee, New York Governor Grover Cleveland, who won the election.[13] Afterward, with the financial aid of his father, the budding newspaperman redeemed the paper.[12]
Through the late 1880s, Harding built the Star. Although the city of Marion tended to vote Republican (as did Ohio),  Marion County was Democratic. Harding therefore adopted a tempered editorial stance, declaring the daily Star nonpartisan and circulating a weekly edition that was moderate Republican. This policy attracted advertisers and put the town's Republican weekly out of business. 