During this time he worked variously as a campus police officer, bulldozer driver, dragline operator, and cotton measurer.

[9] Finch ran for the office of Governor of Mississippi in 1975, facing William F. Winter and Maurice Dantin in the Democratic primary.

[9] He cast himself as "the workingman's candidate"; to do this, he used a lunch pail bearing his name as his campaign symbol and spent one day a week performing a blue collar job, including installing a car engine,[11] pumping fuel, pricing groceries, and driving a bulldozer.

"[13] His one major policy proposal was the creation of a Mississippi Internal Development Assistance System (MIDAS),[14] which entailed coordinated action among state agencies to finance and supply workers to new industries, issue low-interest long-range loans to spur development, and increased marketing to attract outside investment.

[13] Winter denounced Finch's tactics as mere gimmicks, saying, "I am convinced that the people do not want a clown or stuntman leading you for four years.

[16] Finch repeated his blue collar message in anticipation of the runoff, though Winter attacked him for lacking a substantive program.

[20] The 1975 general election marked the first time in decades that the Republican Party offered a serious candidate for gubernatorial office, Gil Carmichael.

[21] Carmichael offered specific proposals and stances, while Finch largely ignored him and espoused vague and confused statements, such as describing himself as "progressive, but conservative.

[27] His actions to increase minority representation in government remained largely nominal; only seven percent of his first-year appointments went to African Americans.

A federal grand jury conducted a three-year-long investigation into his administration and several state agencies were accused of corruption and mismanagement.

[12] The factions reached a compromise, whereby a white Regular and a black Loyalist would serve together as co-chairs of the party executive committee.

[27] While still governor, Finch ran for the United States Senate in 1978, but he was defeated in the Democratic party primary by Maurice Dantin, who then lost in the general election to the Republican U.S. Representative Thad Cochran.

[35] After leaving office, Finch declared his candidacy in the 1980 Democratic presidential primaries against incumbent U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

[36] Entering the campaign shortly before the New Hampshire presidential primary, he failed to secure the 1,000 signatures needed before the filing deadline to have his name placed on the ballot and declared that he would be a write-in candidate.

[34] Historian Chris Danielson wrote, "The fusion of the white and black wings of the state Democratic Party was Finch's greatest legacy.