[1] Ray won the 1825 Indiana gubernatorial election after succeeding to the governorship upon the resignation of William Hendricks, who had stepped down to accept a seat in the United States Senate.

While some partisan behavior by voters is discernible, Ray drew support from both "Adams" and "Jackson" men, and boasted afterwards that he "was not elected by the friends of either side in a party controversy."

No candidate was ever formally endorsed as the "Adams" or "National Republican" nominee for governor, though Moore's presidential preference was known publicly and remarked on in the strategic considerations of the rival Jacksonians.

[10][11] In early May, as it became apparent Ray would be opposed in the gubernatorial election by an Adams man, the Jackson State Committee saw fit to approach the governor with the offer of an endorsement.

Ray wrote in reply that the committee could "dispose of me and my name as you in your wisdom see fit," that he would not commit himself to either candidate for president but would nonetheless welcome "the united support of the Jacksonians" in the August election.

In his address to the electorate, Canby declared himself a supporter of the American System of protectionism and federal infrastructure spending; Ray similarly praised the economic policies of the Adams Administration and as governor had overseen the acquisition by treaty of land for the Michigan Road.

[14][15] The Jacksonians sought to make an issue of the upcoming presidential election, which due to the staggered electoral calendar would be held in November, two months after the gubernatorial contest.

Despite intense pressure to declare a preference, Ray remained steadfastly neutral in the presidential contest, decrying the spirit of partisanship endemic in state politics.

[18] In June the pro-Adams editor of the Brookville Repository, Augustus Jocelyn, published an interview with Ray that dealt a severe blow to the governor's budding alliance with the Jacksonians.

In response, the Jackson State Committee cut all ties with Ray and published in full their previous correspondence, and Canby, his private business now concluded, re-emerged as a candidate for governor.

Professing to admire Adams and Jackson equally, Ray declared he would "be governed by measures and not men" and flatly denied the relevance of presidential politics in the gubernatorial election.

His alliance with the Jackson party had been only prospective, in the event the Adams faction were to mount a partisan campaign against him; as for his description of Jacksonians as "outrageous and violent," Ray said, the remark was entirely Jocelyn's invention.