[2] Davis won a narrow victory over Republican William Yoast Morgan in the 1922 Kansas gubernatorial election and was sworn into office on January 8, 1923.

During his tenure, taxes were cut, prohibition and women's suffrage were endorsed, increased funding secured for veteran's pensions, banking procedures were limited, an improved road bill was authorized, utilities were controlled, and the chancellor of the University of Kansas was fired.

[3] Davis was the Democratic candidate in the 1924 Kansas gubernatorial election but the independent candidacy of publisher William Allen White on an anti-Ku Klux Klan platform split the progressive vote and Republican Benjamin S. Paulen was elected by a plurality.

In 1930 Davis was the Democratic nominee for US Senate opposing incumbent Republican Arthur Capper and suffered another landslide loss.

Davis died on June 27, 1943, following a lengthy illness and several repeat visits to a Fort Scott hospital.