His business interests included coal mining and sales and distribution in Kentucky; a chemical corporation; insurance; banking; and media holdings.
Staunchly opposed to labor unions, he hired armed guards to keep them away from his coal mines.
[7] Potter was a strident opponent of the Tennessee Valley Authority and tried to unseat both Estes Kefauver (1903–1963) and Albert Gore Sr. (1907–1998), who supported the TVA.
[1] In Farm and Ranch Magazine, of which he was majority owner from 1956 to 1959, the TVA was routinely called a "socialistic" project.
[1] Moreover, he bought full-page advertisements in the Chicago Tribune in which he called the project a "communist rathole.
[1][12] The Boy Scouts center on the corner of Woodmont Boulevard and Hillsboro Road in Nashville is named in his honor.