Powers was born in Madison County, Illinois, and served in the Union Army in the Civil War before moving to Nebraska.
In 1892, he was nominated as the gubenarorial candidate of the People's Party, the political wing of the Alliance.
Of the three candidates, Powers received the most votes, but after a long and bitter fight, James E. Boyd, the Democrat, was declared elected.
In his History of Nebraska, James Olson described Powers as "a modest man who lived in a sod house on his homestead in Hitchcock County.
Robert B. Crosby, the Republican Governor of Nebraska from 1954 to 1955, was John Powers' great grandson.