 He was elected County Attorney of Anderson County, Texas, 1931–1935, and District Attorney of the Third Judicial District of Texas, 1935–1945.In 1944, he beat the Democratic incumbent Nat Patton in the primary and defeated Republican J. Perrin Willis in the general election.He was then elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-ninth Congress in 1944, and was reelected unopposed to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1945, until his resignation on June 30, 1952.