A conservative Democrat, he served two terms as governor before he left public office. He opposed the nomination of "wet," Catholic Al Smith in the 1928 presidential primaries, but unlike the Fergusons, he supported Smith against Herbert Hoover in the general election, which saw Texas vote Republican for the first time in its history. Moody supported a reform program of state prisons, roads, and auditing system. In the 1930s, he became a staunch critic of US President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.