2. Congressman Richard Nixon
After graduating from law school at Duke University, Nixon was almost an FBI agent: if it wasn't for budget cuts to the department, he would have been appointed as he had hoped. However, turning adversity into triumph, Nixon would practice law, meet his wife Pat while doing Community Theater, and ultimately wind up living in Washington DC during his Naval Service towards the end of World War II. After leaving the Navy, he and wife Pat would move back to Whittier, California only to be pulled back to D.C. for his next call of duty: Congress. California Republicans ultimately settled on Richard Nixon for their 1946 Congressional Race in the 12th District, where he bested his incumbent opponent 65,586 to 49,994. Most prominent in his Congressional career was his investigation (and subsequent prosecution) of Alger Hiss on charges of Soviet Espionage during his time at the State Department. This investigation, in the time of the "Red Scare", helped secure not only a Congressional Re-election, but also launched and won Nixon a successful Senate campaign in 1950.