After following his father into the local politics of his home county, Clements agreed to chair the gubernatorial campaign of Thomas Rhea in 1935.

In 1944, he was elected floor leader of its Democratic majority and successfully campaigned for a larger budget than that proposed by Republican governor Simeon Willis.

In 1947, Clements succeeded the term-limited Willis, defeating Harry Lee Waterfield, Chandler's preferred candidate, in the Democratic primary.

As governor, Clements raised taxes and used the revenue to increase funding for the state park system and construct and maintain more roads.

When Combs canceled the deal Clements took it as a public rebuke and soon after resigned to work on the presidential campaign of his friend, Lyndon Johnson.

Following his split with Combs, Clements allied himself with the Chandler faction, opposing Wyatt in his bid to unseat Senator Thruston Morton.

Clements' influence declined rapidly after the split with Combs, and by the 1963 gubernatorial race, he was unable to deliver his home county for Chandler in the primary against Edward T. Breathitt, who was nominated.

[6] Clements first served as a guard at Camp Taylor and later entered the Officers Training School at Fort Benjamin Harrison near Indianapolis, Indiana.

[3][5] Their only child, Elizabeth (Bess) Hughes Clements Abell, was social secretary to Lady Bird Johnson in 1961-69 and Walter Mondale when he was vice president.

[9] In 1935, Thomas Rhea of Russellville, a former state treasurer and highway commissioner, asked Clements to serve as his campaign chairman for the 1935 gubernatorial race.

[1] A New Deal Democrat, Clements voted to increase funding to the Rural Electrification Administration and advocated for the 1945 National School Lunch Act.

[9] He supported civil rights legislation, such as bans on lynching and poll taxes and he did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto despite school segregation being legally required in Kentucky prior to Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

[9][12] His service on the Select House Committee on Food Shortages gave him the chance to interact closely with President Harry S.

[7] He chose Lexington Herald-Leader editor Tom Underwood as his campaign manager, strengthening his influence in Central Kentucky.

[14] Dummit mounted a meager challenge by citing Clements' opposition to the Taft-Hartley Act that organized labor opposed, but this was not very effective.

[19] Clements' lieutenant governor and successor, Lawrence Wetherby, was able to meet this demand in 1951 by using increased tax revenue resulting from the Korean War.

[19] Leading national accreditation groups attempted to disaccredit many of Kentucky's public colleges during Clements' administration in order to end longstanding political interference in the higher education system.

[20] In 1948, he weakened Kentucky's Day Law—which enforced segregation of the state's education system—by providing an exception for black medical personnel to take post-graduate courses in white public hospitals.

[20] His efforts to secure a similar arrangement at the University of Kentucky were not successful, despite the governor's status as ex-officio chairman of the UK Board of Trustees.

[19] He also failed in his attempts to establish statewide pension and civil service programs, and was unable to enact a merit system to give civil-service protection to state employees.

[26] The most likely choice was Wetherby's lieutenant governor, Emerson "Doc" Beauchamp, but his uninspiring persona and ties to boss-dominated Logan County made him unacceptable to Clements.

[26] Since Combs had little in the way of a political record to run against, Chandler focused his campaign attacks on factional leaders Clements and Wetherby, who he nicknamed "Clementine and Wetherbine".

[26] These attacks, combined with a poorly run campaign by Combs, allowed Chandler to win the Democratic primary by a margin of 18,000 votes.

[26] Journalist John Ed Pearce later recorded that Clements had favored Chandler's choice, Frankfort lawyer Joseph Leary, over Wetherby.

These factors, combined with the landslide of support for Eisenhower, the Republican presidential candidate, contributed to the defeat of both Wetherby and Clements.

[31] Clements never again sought an elected office after his defeat, though he remained active in state politics and continued to lead the anti-Chandler faction of his party.

[32] Without Clements in the race, the anti-Chandler faction was unable to unite behind either former candidate Bert T. Combs or former Louisville mayor Wilson Wyatt.

[33] Clements united the faction behind Combs, making Wilson Wyatt their candidate for lieutenant governor and promising him support for later races.

[34] Others wondered if Clements took the post in order to organize the state political machinery for his friend Johnson, who was planning to run for president.

[34] In March 1960, news broke that the highway department was about to lease 34 used dump trucks at a very favorable price from Louisville Ford dealer Thurston Cooke, who had served as finance chairman for Combs' gubernatorial campaign.