He was elected in 1961 and, along with fellow Republican William Cowger, who became the new mayor of Louisville, Cook unseated the Democratic Party, which had held both offices for 28 years.

Auctioned as little more than scrap material, upon refurbishment the boat was now called the Belle of Louisville, and, as of 2024[update], it still carried passengers yearly and was one of the most recognizable symbols of the city.

A politically motivated taxpayer suit was brought by local lawyer Daniel Boone because of the county's expenditure of such an "outrageous sum" for a dilapidated "throwback to the Dark Ages of transportation," in Alan Bates' memorable phrase.

According to Cook, the expenditure worked out to roughly six cents per taxpayer, a negligible sum, even at that time, and when individual citizens complained, he would simply pay them off with pennies from a jar that he kept in his office desk for the purpose.

[3] In 1967, Cook ran at the top of a slate of statewide office holders as a candidate for governor of Kentucky in the Republican primary election.

He was narrowly defeated by more conservative Barren County Judge Louie Nunn, who went on to be elected the first Republican governor in Kentucky since 1943.

In the general election in which Richard Nixon carried Kentucky over Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace, Cook defeated former state Commerce Commissioner Katherine Peden.

[1] In a fiery op-ed, he announced his support for Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts in the 2004 United States presidential election: "I have been, and will continue to be, a Republican.