Active in the local Democratic Party, he became mayor of Gretna (serving 15 years--1918-1933--before his first legislative run below) and aligned with the Byrd Organization.
Vaden began his part-time legislative career in 1933, as he succeeded lawyer and former judge E. J. Harvey of Chatham, who had long served as one of two senators representing the 13th Virginia senatorial district, but died in office.
Frank B. Burton won the special election held February 3, 1948 for what had been Bustard's seat, and remained Vaden's co-senator for his final terms.
For the Assembly that began 1954, Landon R. Wyatt succeeded Vaden briefly alongside Burton, who would die in office in 1956.
[8] Although Danville and Martinsville had major racial segregation issues during his lifetime, as Virginia lawyers Martin A. Martin, Oliver Hill and future federal judge Spottswood Robinson had begun addressing, both in those cities and in Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, which became a companion case to Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in which sparked Massive Resistance by the Byrd Organization shortly after Vaden's death.