While the stock market had crashed in 1929, its effects had not fully reached Tennessee by the 1930 elections. Four days after Horton was reelected governor, however, the Bank of Tennessee, which was controlled by Lea and his business associate, Rogers Caldwell, was declared insolvent, and numerous banks controlled by Caldwell across the South soon followed. Horton had deposited more than $6 million (the equivalent of over $86 million in 2017) in state funds in Caldwell's banks, all of which was lost.