On a crisp October evening in 2016, Jack Ohman arrived at Columbia University to accept the most prestigious award in the arts. In front of brilliant journalists, prolific authors and 2016’s leading playwright, Lin Manuel Miranda, Ohman accomplished a goal 35 years in the making when he was presented with the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.
A child of the 60s, Ohman was exposed to politics at a young age. As a seven-year-old, he attended the burial of the slain Robert F. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery. In high school, he worked for the Democratic Party in Minnesota and in then-Senator, later Vice President, Walter Mondale’s office. Armed with political knowledge and a talent for drawing, Ohman began creating political cartoons for fun, but didn’t see himself pursuing it as a career.
“Our journalism teacher, Peggy Reinhart, said ‘You could be one of the great U.S. editorial cartoonists,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, right, okay,’” Ohman said. “I’d always kind of kept that in the back of my mind as my fallback position if I couldn’t be president. I didn’t realize how hard it was to become a political cartoonist.”
After high school, Ohman went to the University of Minnesota where he started working as a cartoonist for the campus newspaper, the Minnesota Daily. Within 18 months, his work was being reprinted in Newsweek. Soon after that, his cartoons were in The Washington Post and The New York Times.
National newspaper organizations quickly took notice, and a 19-year-old Jack Ohman became the youngest syndicated political cartoonist in the United States with his work being sent out to papers across the nation. When one of his biggest influences, cartoonist Jeff MacNelly, retired, Ohman was plugged into MacNelly’s client list.
“I went from having 50 clients, which was a lot for a young person, to having almost 400 clients. I was the second most read political cartoonist in the United States when I was 20 years old, which was completely ridiculous,” said Ohman. The checks started rolling in and at 20-something, Ohman was buying sports cars and houses. Although he was enjoying the success, it wasn’t always as glamorous as it sounds.
“It was a lot of pressure because there are a lot of people looking at your work, including other major cartoonists wanting to know who the hell this young guy was in Minnesota,” said Ohman. My career kind of trapped me. Nobody should be under that much scrutiny when they’re that age. I had no idea what my style was. I mean I was still learning how to draw, frankly.”
However, even with the stress of success at a young age, Ohman continued to hone his craft. As his career flourished, he set his sights on a major goal.
“Jeff MacNelly won a Pulitzer when he was 24. I was like, ‘Well I want to win a Pulitzer Prize. That’d be cool,’” said Ohman. Years passed and Ohman continued to prosper in cartooning, but he never stopped dreaming of the Pulitzer. A finalist in 2012, he finally secured a win in 2016. It felt like a weight had been lifted.
“It was a relief. That was my number one sensation because I had been thinking about it too much,” said Ohman. He had just accomplished a goal he’d been dreaming of non-stop for 35 years.
“It was like getting a phone call from the New York Yankees saying you’re gonna pitch in Game 7. It was that level of, ‘holy shit, that’s me?’” said Ohman. “My sensation was ‘this is an even bigger deal than I thought’ because you get into a club that you can’t buy yourself into. I could walk into the Yale club tomorrow and I would have something that they couldn’t buy and their parents couldn’t get for them.”
The Pulitzer solidified the status Ohman had been building for years. He was thrilled to receive the recognition but has had to learn to live with the minor amount of celebrity that comes with it.
“You’re defined by it. It puts you in a lens for every single person that you meet,” said Ohman. “If you’re rude to anybody, they’re gonna tell 7,000 people. Being a nice Minnesota boy has been a useful experience because nobody goes away and says, ‘Jack Ohman was a prick to me.’”
But even with all the accolades, Ohman is most proud of his work for its intelligent social commentary in an increasingly volatile political environment.
“Editorial cartoons can do what editorials can’t do. They can go there,” Ohman said. “I’m proud of the fact that I try to do smart work in a dumb world.”
Today, Ohman is one of only 30 salaried political cartoonists left in the United States. Working at the Sacramento Bee, Ohman’s cartoons are still syndicated to 200 newspapers across the U.S. and overseas.