He reorganized the state's administrative structure by reducing the number of agencies and the consequent financial economies.

He married Ella James on 9 February 1881 in Missouri[2] and over the course of years they had five children, three sons and two daughters,[1] Lured by the frontier, Hart and his wife moved to Snohomish, Washington in the late 1880s,[2] where he practiced law.

[3] Winning the Republican nomination in 1912, Hart was elected as Washington's seventh Lieutenant Governor and he was reelected in 1916.

[4] During World War I Hart served as chairman of the Selective Service Appeals Board for Southwest Washington.

Hart did not run for reelection in 1924, but instead retired to Tacoma where he practiced law, and served as the president of the State Good Roads Association.