Hooker was a direct descendant of William Blount, who signed the Constitution of the United States and who was appointed by President George Washington in 1790 to be the "Governor of all the lands south of the Ohio River".
Struck by the inequalities in the southern society that confronted him at the time, he became identified as a young man with progressive Democratic politics.
With the support and backing of the Evans family and John Seigenthaler, Hooker decided to enter the 1966 Democratic primary for governor of Tennessee.
Hooker ran fairly well in the urban and rural areas but lost badly in the suburbs, to which the Old Guard's support had largely moved in the post-World War II era.
Ellington went on to an easy victory in November, with no Republican opposition, the last time such a circumstance was to occur in Tennessee.
By this time Hooker had many diversified investments including Whale Inc. and a chain of fried chicken restaurants with country comedian Minnie Pearl and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.
Hooker was also closely involved around the same time with the Frist family and others in the formation of what became the first major for-profit healthcare chain, the Hospital Corporation of America.
In 1966, Howard Baker had beaten Governor Frank Clement for the United States Senate because the Democratic party was divided between the Clement/Ellington forces and the anti-Clement/Ellington forces, as best exemplified in the heated primary battle that year between Ellington and Hooker, and the absence of a gubernatorial nominee had in fact allowed Republicans to focus almost all of their energies on electing Baker to the Senate seat.
Simultaneously, Democratic Senator Albert Gore, Sr. was running an equally hard-fought and ultimately unsuccessful campaign for a fourth term against Chattanooga Congressman Bill Brock.
Nonetheless, the SEC investigation, which lasted three years, caused the company virtually to liquidate, although a few outlets continued to function into the 1980s.
In 1979, Hooker arranged for the sale of The Tennessean newspaper to Gannett, which had earlier purchased the Banner but preferred to own morning rather than evening papers.
Hooker began to file to run for various political offices including governor, Senator, Congressman, and others, for the purpose of acquiring the legal standing to sue all of these persons running for the office for taking campaign contributions from "out of state" contributors, which according to his legal theories were both illegal and unconstitutional.
In 1995 he sued President Bill Clinton, as well as all of the other presidential candidates, for accepting certain campaign contributions, which according to his theory were unconstitutional.
Hooker won the nomination based on name recognition among older Democrats, who in Tennessee are generally the most reliable primary voters.
Hooker remained a political activist, running for Congress in 2002 and again suing all his opponents, and then for Chancery Court judge in 2004 as an Independent against Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman.
He sued her for taking campaign contributions from lawyers who practiced in her court and then attended fundraisers held by her at which, according to Hooker, she furnished them with food and drink as prohibited by Article X Section 3 of the Tennessee Constitution.