One of the first professional campaign managers; Chotiner was retained as a political consultant by Nixon's 1946 campaign for Congress against incumbent Representative Jerry Voorhis. He advised linking Voorhis with a political action committee, believed to be communist-dominated, run by the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The consultant was only able to devote a limited amount of time to the Nixon campaign since he was the Southern California campaign manager for the successful re-election bid of Republican Senator William F. Knowland. Chotiner coined the campaign slogan, "We will not surrender" for Knowland, implying that Democratic challenger Will Rogers Jr. would permit communism to take over the country. Both Republican candidates defeated their opponents. Two years later, Chotiner served as Southern California campaign manager for the unsuccessful 1948 presidential bid of New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey.