A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 40th governor of Alabama from 1939 to 1943 and is most known for reorganizing the state government and reforming the way property taxes were assessed.

His law practice was interrupted by World War I. Dixon enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Corps as a volunteer.

When he returned to Birmingham, he founded a law partnership, Bowers and Dixon, and became a successful corporate lawyer.

He met with Bibb Graves, public administration experts, and Franklin Roosevelt to get advice and expertise on his plans for changing Alabama's government.

He oversaw a wartime reorganization of the docks in Mobile, Alabama, resulting in a four-hundred percent increase in barge traffic.

The Montgomery Advertiser commented that even though thousands lined the parade route, most people did not cheer but rather were calm, respectful, and quiet observers until the British cadets came by.

"[3] Governor Dixon also organized and oversaw a "massive" USO show in Montgomery that featured Erle Danley, a music professor from Huntingdon, a choir from Alabama State sang carols, British cadets singing "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" as well as other events.

In 1948, former governor Dixon was temporary chairman and keynote speaker at the Birmingham convention of the States' Rights Democratic Party that nominated Strom Thurmond and Fielding Wright as their presidential ticket.

In the 1960 United States presidential election, Dixon was the highest vote-getter for a slate of unpledged Democratic electors that chose Harry F. Byrd and Strom Thurmond over John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B.