As a child he attended public schools and moved on to Stanford University one year early with a degree in economics.

[2] A Democrat in politics, Storke was appointed to the United States Senate by Republican California Governor Frank F. Merriam on November 9, 1938, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William Gibbs McAdoo the day before.

The John Birch Society attacked the Eisenhower administration and U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren as being communists in 1961.

Storke responded with a caustic series of editorials in the News-Press which won him popular acclaim as well as a number of prizes.

These included the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism, for Editorial Writing in 1962, the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award, and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College.

[3] Storke used his political clout to help obtain the present UCSB campus, over 900 coastal acres (3.6 km2) and a former military installation, from the US Government under the college land grant program.