A state Senator (1949–63), he came to national prominence in the early 1950s when, as chairman of a US Senate committee investigating organized crime, he exposed nationwide gambling and crime syndicates, which had infiltrated legitimate business and gained control of local politics. The evidence of corruption among federal tax officials led to several dismissals and the resignation of the commissioner of Internal Revenue. Kefauver won the Democratic Party’s nomination for Vice-President (1956), but President Eisenhower (Republican) was re-elected.