A member of the Republican Party, he served in the Nebraska Legislature, as mayor of the capital city of Lincoln, and as the 28th governor of the state.

During his tenure, taxes and expenditures were reduced, mental health programs were improved, and a prison riot was successfully calmed.

[3] He sought a third term in 1958, but lost to Democratic candidate Ralph G. Brooks, in what was then the closest election in Nebraska history.

[4] In 1959, U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Anderson as a U.S. delegate to the NATO-sponsored Atlantic Congress in London, England.

[3] He belonged to the Freemasons, the Elks, the Moose, the Odd fellows and Sigma Phi Epsilon, and was a member of the Methodist church.