Background
Joseph Christopher O'Mahoney was born on November 5, 1884, in Chelsea, Massachussets, the son of Denis O'Mahoney, a furrier, and Elizabeth Sheehan. His parents were Irish immigrants.
Joseph Christopher O'Mahoney was born on November 5, 1884, in Chelsea, Massachussets, the son of Denis O'Mahoney, a furrier, and Elizabeth Sheehan. His parents were Irish immigrants.
Joseph O'Mahoney was educated at the Cambridge Latin School and attended Columbia University (1905 - 1907). Joseph studied law and received the LL. B. degree from Georgetown University in 1920.
From 1907 to 1917, Joseph O'Mahoney was a newspaper reporter and editor. He settled in Colorado in 1908. Joseph was a Roosevelt Progressive in 1912, but became a Democrat by 1916. In 1916, O'Mahoney went to Wyoming to become the city editor of Democratic Governor John B. Kendrick's Cheyenne State Leader. When Kendrick entered the United States Senate in 1917, O'Mahoney became his executive secretary. While in Washington he studied law at night and received the LL. B. degree from Georgetown University in 1920. Later he returned to Cheyenne to practice law.
O'Mahoney remained active in politics, managing Kendrick's campaign for reelection in 1922, serving as vice-chairman of the Democratic State Committee from 1922 to 1930, representing Wyoming in 1925-1926 at the Conference on Uniform State Laws, and being a member of the Democratic National Committee from 1929 to 1934. O'Mahoney played a prominent role, as a national convention delegate, in drafting the 1932 Democratic platform, and he served as vice-chairman of the Democratic national campaign committee that year.
O'Mahoney's efforts were rewarded in March 1933 when he was appointed first assistant postmaster general of the United States. When Kendrick died in 1933, O'Mahoney was appointed to fill the vacant seat. He was elected to the Senate in his own right in 1934 and was reelected in 1940 and 1946. Republican Governor Frank A. Barrett defeated him in 1952, but O'Mahoney was elected in 1954 to take the place of the late Senator Lester C. Hunt.
Early in his Senate service O'Mahoney emerged as an influential legislator. His major Senate assignments were to the Appropriations, Judiciary, and Interior committees.
In 1945, O'Mahoney introduced a resolution for an international agreement to ban the use of the atomic bomb.
O'Mahoney's greatest impact was as a crusading antimonopolist. In the Senate he introduced the resolution that established the Temporary National Economic Committee (TNEC), with six members from Congress and six from the executive branch of government. He served as chairman of the TNEC during its investigations (1938 - 1941) of monopoly and concentration of wealth and their effects on employment, technology, business methods, and the economy in general. From this investigation came O'Mahoney's proposals for national charters for corporations engaged in interstate commerce. Of special importance in his legislation was the establishment of the congressional Joint Economic Committee, of which O'Mahoney served as chairman for three congresses, and the Council of Economic Advisers.
In addition to further antimonopolistic endeavors, during the 1950's O'Mahoney was noted for his work in supporting the admission of Alaska and Hawaii as states and, as chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, in financing American involvement in the Korean War. He was also a leader in the successful opposition to the confirmation of Lewis Strauss as secretary of commerce in 1959.
O'Mahoney suffered a stroke in 1959 and retired from public office in 1961. He died in 1962 in Bethesda, Maryland.
While serving as a US Senator from Wyoming, O'Mahoney introduced a resolution for an international agreement to ban the use of the atomic bomb in 1945; supported the admission of Alaska and Hawaii as states. Being a chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, O'Mahoney supported financing American involvement in the Korean War. He is also known for his antimonopolistic policy and creation of the Temporary National Economic Committee, which he chaired from 1938 to 1941.
Joseph O'Mahoney was a member of the Democratic party since 1916.
O'Mahoney was a vice-chairman of the Democratic State Committee from (1922-1930); a member of the Democratic National Committee (1929-1934); a vice-chairman of the Democratic national campaign committee (1932).
Joseph O'Mahoney was a member of the U. S. Senate from Wyoming on two occasions, first from 1934 to 1953 and then again from 1954 to 1961.
In the Senate he introduced the resolution that established the Temporary National Economic Committee (TNEC), and served as a chairman of the TNEC during its investigations (1938 - 1941).
O'Mahoney also established the Joint Economic Committee, and served as its chairman for three congresses, and the Council of Economic Advisers.
He was a chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
On June 11, 1913, Joseph O'Mahoney married Agnes Veronica O'Leary; they had no children but raised three nephews.
