He graduated from Newberry College and earned his law degree from George Washington University.

He served from 1925 to 1933, and then did not run again after redistricting eliminated a seat from South Carolina's congressional delegation.

[1] He returned to the House in 1939 after defeating incumbent John Taylor.

[2] His main accomplishment as a Representative was authoring the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act, which grants a 10-year Commonwealth status and proposed that the former US Territory of the Philippines become an independent nation.

[3] His son James Butler Hare, whom he outlived by a year, served a single term from 1949 to 1951 in South Carolina's 3rd district.