Morley: The Intimate Story of Virginia's Governor & Mrs. Westmoreland Davis

Combative by nature and self-righteous, Davis was sympathetic to the progressivism of the 1910s and developed a deep animosity toward the Democratic Party organization, which he believed thwarted progress and excluded too many people from participation in politics. He attempted to build a rival organization through political appointments, but it did not last beyond his term. After leaving the governor's office early in 1922, Davis ran against party leader Claude Augustus Swanson in the Democratic primary for nomination to the seat in the United States Senate that Swanson had held for a dozen years. Davis's attempt to break up the organization failed, and he lost badly. In the reinvigoration of the party that year, Harry Flood Byrd (1887-1966) emerged as one of the most powerful young leaders. He was elected governor in 1925 and succeeded Swanson in the Senate in 1933. Davis and Byrd intensely disliked and distrusted each other. Davis denounced Byrd's style of political leadership and his opposition to the New Deal of the 1930s. Davis established the Virginia Bureau of Research, which early in the 1930s issued bulletins accusing state government agencies of financial mismanagement. He departed so far from the political orthodoxy of the party late in the decade that he had the Southern Planter begin campaigning for elimination of the poll tax as a prerequisite for voting because it kept many poor white men from voting for reformers and against the Byrd organization. Davis and his wife led an active social life after he was governor. Cattle and turkeys he bred and raised won prestigious prizes at national livestock shows, and from 1928 to 1931 he served as president of the Virginia State Fair Association.