Unfamiliar with running a statewide campaign, Horton turned to Peay's longtime adviser, Luke Lea, publisher of the "Nashville Tennessean", to help him win reelection in 1928. Lea's rivals, Memphis political boss E. H. Crump and Nashville political boss Hilary Howse, both endorsed Hill McAlister, who had been defeated by Peay in 1926. A third candidate, Lewis S. Pope, also sought the Democratic nomination, and had the backing of Peay's widow. After a hard-fought primary campaign, Horton won the nomination with 97,333 votes to 92,017 for McAlister, and 27,779 for Pope. In the general election, he defeated the Republican candidate, Raleigh Hopkins, 195,546 votes to 124,733. Because of Unionist whites in Eastern Tennessee and numerous freedmen and their descendants in Middle and especially Western Tennessee, who aligned with the Republican Party, Tennessee had competitive elections for a longer period than most of the Confederate states. They had disenfranchised most blacks and were one-party states from the turn of the 20th century.