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The Shelby Dynasty, also known as The Administration or Gardner Machine, was an American political machine founded by O. Max Gardner that dominated North Carolina politics for much of the early-to-mid 20th century.

The Simmons Machine


In the Reconstruction era in the aftermath of the American Civil War, the United States federal government controlled political affairs in North Carolina and the rest of the American South. Following federal withdrawal in the 1870s, the Democratic Party became ascendant in the South. Economically conservative Bourbon Democrats dominated much of the decision making, and in response discontent farmers in North Carolina rallied to the Populist Party in the early 1890s. Furnifold McLendel Simmons became chairman of the State Democratic Executive Committee in 1892. In preparations for that years' elections, he recruited new activists and thoroughly organized, facilitating the Democrats' victory in statewide races, though they only won a plurality of votes. Simmons left the party chairmanship to assume a federal post, and in 1894 the Populists and the Republican Party employed electoral fusion, successfully taking control of the North Carolina General Assembly and electing Republican Daniel Lindsay Russell as Governor of North Carolina.

During Russel's tenure, blacks held more offices and black voter participation increased, incensing Democrats. In the 1898 legislative elections Simmons, re-assuming the chairmanship of the State Democratic Executive Committee, directed Democratic campaign activities, which took on a tone of white supremacy and included the use of paramilitary Red Shirts to intimidate black voters. Democrats won control of the General Assembly and in 1899 placed local government under the authority of the assembly. Under Simmons initiative, they also brought an amendment to the state constitution to a referendum the following year with provisions meant to disenfranchise black voters. The amendment passed. Simmons won the Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat in 1900 and went on to defeat the incumbent, Populist Marion Butler in the legislative election.

The elections of 1898 and 1900 destroyed the Populist Party and rendered the Republican Party impotent, leaving North Carolina under Democratic dominance with Simmons as its preeminent leader, particularly of the Democratic conservative faction. Simmons held the Senate seat from 1901 to 1931. He used his organizational success to build a state-wide political machine consisting of networks of local political machines and personal friends. The Simmons Machine went on to control state politics for thirty years, helping elect six governors. Its chosen nominee lost a gubernatorial campaign only once when William Walton Kitchin, a former friend of Simmons, won election in 1908.

O. Max Gardner and Webb family
O. Max Gardner was born in 1882 in Shelby, North Carolina, the son of a state legislator. After completing his education, he returned to Shelby to open a law practice and married Fay Lamar Webb. Webb came from a family that was prominent in local politics and had established a "dynasty"; her father, Superior Court Judge James L. Webb, had a long political career that included service as a mayor and a member of the North Carolina Senate. Her uncle, Edwin Y. Webb, was a member of the United States House of Representatives. The Webb brothers were key figures in a local Democratic machine which had successfully wrestled control of Cleveland County politics from Fusionist candidates in the 1890s. Gardner's sister also married politician Clyde R. Hoey. Gardner then entered politics and quickly rose from state senator at the age of 28 and was elected Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina at the age of 33 in 1916. He was a supporter of Kitchin. Meanwhile, his brother became Mayor of Shelby. In 1919, Edwin Webb was appointed to a federal judgeship and Hoey took his seat in the House of Representatives. Gardner also co-founded Cleveland Cloth Mill, a textile manufacturer, with Odus M. Mull, a state legislator and legal partner of the Webb brothers.

North Carolina gubernatorial election of 1920 and aftermath
In 1920 the Simmons Machine backed Cameron A. Morrison in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. He was opposed by "anti-machine" candidates Gardner and Robert N. Page. Gardner derided Morrison as a "machine" candidate, and in return Morrison denounced Gardner as a member of the "Shelby Office-Holding Trust". Hoey declared his intention to not seek reelection to the House of Representatives, allowing Gardner to distance himself from accusations of being a machine candidate himself. Gardner publicly condemned Simmons' intervention in the primary, and Morrison attacked Gardner for being a member of the "Shelby Dynasty". Morrison emerged as the winner of the June 5 primary by 87 votes over Gardner. Page placed third. Per the state's election laws, if a candidate in a primary won less than 50% of the vote, the candidate in second place could call for a runoff. In the runoff election on July 3, Morrison won by a solid margin, and secured victory in the November general election.

Following the election, Gardner reached a deal with Simmons. He agreed to abstain from running for governor in 1924, so as to allow the seat to be taken by an easterner and thus honor the Simmons Machine's tradition of alternating the holders of the office between easterners and westerners every election cycle. His local Shelby organization supported Simmons' preferred candidate that year, Angus Wilton McLean, and in exchange Simmons backed Gardner's gubernatorial bid in 1928. Gardner won the election without difficulty. He also arranged for Odus M. Mull to become state Democratic chairman, a position he held until 1932.

Gardner distanced himself from Simmons' brand of conservativism by emphasizing that attention was needed for social reform and government reorganization. In 1928 Simmons endorsed the Republican nominee for President of the United States instead of the Democratic one, Al Smith, damaging his political clout. Gardner backed Smith, and in 1930 Democratic loyalists ousted Simmons from his Senate seat in the election, replacing him with Josiah Bailey. Simmons' removal created a power vacuum in state politics which Gardner quickly filled. In December 1930 Lee Slater Overman, one of the U.S. Senators from North Carolina, died in office. As governor, Gardner was responsible for appointing someone to fill the vacancy. Gardner offered the job to Hoey, who declined, fearing that a governor appointing his brother-in-law to the seat would negatively impact Gardner's reputation. At the behest of other Democratic leaders, Gardner appointed Morrison to the vacancy.

Structure and function
The main leaders of the Shelby Dynasty were Gardner, the Webb brothers, Hoey, and Mull. Some historians also consider Lee B. Weathers, editor of the Shelby Daily Star, one of its key figures. The Star was founded and owned by Hoey until Weathers bought it from him and it acted as an organ of the machine. The Shelby Dynasty determined gubernatorial candidates as well those seeking other statewide or congressional offices. Its strength lay in the control of appointed and elective offices of the North Carolina administration, particularly those in charge of the Department of Revenue and the State Highway Commission. It also had influence in the educational system. Dynasty leaders in government maintained their power through clientelism and patronage. Patronage appointees in the administration were expected to donate part of their salaries to the North Carolina Democratic Party; the state Democratic chairmen set giving quotas for each government department. Like the Simmons Machine, most of the Shelby Dynasty's electoral support came from the Western and Piedmont regions of North Carolina, where it could rely on the loyalty of local courthouse cliques. Democrats in counties that housed a significant Republican presence—particularly those in the West—offered the strongest support for the machine, as they sought its assistance for their political survival. The organization would often appeal to Eastern voters by fronting equal slates of Eastern and Western candidates. The machine had financial backing from most North Carolinian textile, furniture, tobacco, banking, insurance, and utility executives. The label "Shelby Dynasty" specifically alluded to Gardner's and Hoey's hometown, but in practice its usage referred more to the elite economic class in control of the state than it did recall a geographic area.

Under the Shelby Dynasty's reign North Carolina enjoyed a reputation for "clean government", though sometimes it would engage in electoral fraud to suit its preferences, particularly manipulation of absentee ballots. The machine favored centralized, efficient administration and promoted the development of industry and improving education. It opposed labor unions. Throughout its existence electoral factionalism in North Carolina was primarily split between economic conservatism and populism; racial politics remained largely dormant. Though the dynasty supported white supremacy, it disapproved of and did not employ the extremely racist rhetoric of the Simmons Machine. Instead, it sought to maintain cordial race relations in the state. As per an informal agreement, the Dynasty employed a geographic rotation system in its choices for governor, with a candidate from one term hailing from the Eastern portion of the state and the subsequent candidate originating from the Western part. While it was able to dominate gubernatorial politics for a significant period of time, it usually faced significant electoral opposition in the Democratic primaries.

Early years
While serving as Governor, Gardner had to manage the economic fallout of the Great Depression. Budget shortfalls forced him to press for cost-cutting measures, including salary reductions, which angered many North Carolinians. He oversaw the implementation of modest reforms in 1929. Later in his tenure he pressed the legislature to adopt statutes that would consolidate different governmental departments and strip local governments of certain prerogatives. The centralization campaign provoked anger in the legislature but was ultimately successful, with numerous reforms being implemented by the General Assembly during its long 1931 session. The state assumed responsibility for building highways and maintaining jails, provided much the funding for public schools, and consolidated public universities under the University of North Carolina system. A Division of of Purchasing and Contract was created to manage government equipment acquisitions, a Division of Personnel was established to oversee public hiring, and a Local Government Commission was formed to oversee county and municipal finances.

Gardner rewarded some of his supporters in the General Assembly with appointments to government boards; E. B. Jeffress was made chairman of the new State Highway Commission, Gurney P. Hood became State Banking Commissioner, Frank L. Dunlap became State Personnel Director, and Edwin M. Gill was appointed Secretary to the Governor. Gill went on to become a key member of the Shelby Dynasty. The reforms strengthened Gardner's power as governor. Limited to only one term, the long-term success of his reforms required his ability to maintain influence in the Democratic Party. In order to preserve his record and reputation, he mobilized the remnants of the Simmons Machine to support his political decisions, relying more on institutional power in state departments than local political machines, but preserving a continuity of conservative financial backing. Gardner's political organization was widely dubbed "The Administration" during his tenure. Weathers wrote, "What was variously called the 'Shelby Ring,' and later the 'Cleveland Dynasty,' was never planned ; it just developed." Through 1936 it repeatedly oversaw the electoral defeat of opponents of the centralization reforms.

The 1932 North Carolina gubernatorial election was the first contest in decades in which Simmons played no role. Numerous likely candidates appeared ready to declare themselves; the first to do so was Lieutenant Governor Richard T. Fountain. A staunch critic of Gardner, he represented a more liberal, "anti-machine" group. Particularly, he disagreed with Gardner's centralization of government and supported the creation of a luxury tax, which upset business interests. Gardner tapped John C. B. Ehringhaus, a politician who had been retired until sought by the governor for advice, as his favorite candidate. Ehringhaus defended Gardner's policies and was widely viewed as the "Administration candidate". He also opposed the levying of a luxury or sales tax as "economically unsound". A third candidate, Revenue Commissioner Allen J. Maxwell, ran as a conservative, believing he had the support of Gardner. In the Democratic primary election Ehringhaus placed ahead of Fountain by 47,000 thousand votes, while Maxwell placed third and announced his withdrawal from the contest.

It was initially unclear if Fountain would call for a runoff election, but then one of his campaign leaders alleged that 25,000 absentee ballots had been cast fraudulently and that 900 such ballots in Surry County had not been preserved according to law. At Fountain's request, North Carolina Attorney General Dennis G. Brummitt conducted an investigation which found numerous violations of absentee ballot and Australian ballot regulations and resulted in the removal of two local election officials from office. No evidence linked state officials or candidates to the irregularities. Soon thereafter, Brummit submitted a resolution at the Guilford County Democratic Convention. Though it did not name individuals, it criticized the appointment of legislators to executive positions they had helped establish, denounced machine politics, and deplored an attempt by a governor to choose his successor. The resolution passed the local convention but, despite the attention it received, was not discussed at the State Democratic Convention a few days later. Instead, the state convention endorsed Gardner's performance as governor.

On the day before the state convention Fountain issued a press release declaring his decision to pursue a run-off election. He denounced Ehringhaus as a "machine candidate" beholden to special interests, particularly lobbyists from tobacco and power utility corporations. Fountain also alleged that employees of the State Highway Department and Prison Department were engaging in organized political activity on his opponent's behalf. Ehringhaus campaign members denounced Fountain as a demagogue. Gardner's backing supplied Ehringhaus with an edge in endorsements from public officials in the second primary. Ehringhaus won the run-off with 182,055 votes to Fountain's 168,971 votes. Though Ehringhaus had won, observers were surprised that Fountain, who had his strongest electoral support in the east, had narrowed the margin of victory from the first primary.

Concurrent to the gubernatorial race was the contest for the U.S. Senate seat held by Morrison. Hoey rejected the urgings of his friends to seek the office, hoping to pursue the governorship in 1936. Morrison sought reelection and faced a few challengers, most notably Robert Rice Reynolds, who ran on a populist campaign based on repealing Prohibition, banning immigration, and vigorous enforcement of antitrust law. The Shelby Dynasty supported Morrison, and Gardner indicated to him that he would campaign vigorously on his behalf. In reality, Gardner thought Morrison was assured victory, and devoted most of his energies to assisting Ehringhaus. Morrison spent most of his time in Washington D.C., content to leave the campaign to the Shelby Dynasty. Reynolds attempted to paint Morrison as rich and aloof from the concerns of regular North Carolinians. In the first Democratic primary in June, Reynolds led Morrison by 13,000 votes. Morrison called for a runoff, and Gardner and Hoey promised him their help. In the resumed campaign, Reynolds derided Morrison as a stooge of Gardner and a symbol of machine politics. Reynolds defeated Morrison in a landslide upset, securing the largest margin of victory ever made in a state Democratic primary.

Reynold's victory, while not displacing Gardner's political status or his nascent Shelby Dynasty, demonstrated the weaknesses of the machine. Shortly thereafter, Mull retired from the state Democratic chairmanship. Ehringhaus and Gardner backed J. Wallace Wilborne to replace him in August. This was against Reynold's wishes, but he was resigned to a subordinate position of influence in the state Democratic party and sought the Shelby Dynasty's support in the the general election.

Ehringhaus and Reynolds both won their respective bids for office in the November 1932 election. Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt won election to the United States Presidency, proposing a liberal legislative package of reform known as the New Deal to alleviate the Great Depression. Gardner was friends with Roosevelt and intensively supportive of the New Deal, feeling it could help the American people survive the downturn and salvage the reputation of capitalism. Shortly after leaving the governorship, he moved to Washington D.C. and set up a law practice. While there, he remained a friend and political adviser to Roosevelt. After Gardner moved to Washington D.C., he did not continue to closely manage the affairs of the Shelby Dynasty, but instead was able to exercise his influence over it through his prestige, his personal friendships with office holders, and his ability to raise funds for candidates. In Washington he became a powerful lawyer and lobbyist and maintained relationships with numerous national politicians. Gardner also used the thousands of federal jobs created by the New Deal to distribute patronage to the benefit of the Shelby Dynasty. Meanwhile, Reynolds was seated in the Senate and fought with Bailey and Gardner over influence in distributing federal patronage. The latter two actively lobbied Roosevelt to reject Reynold's recommendations and successfully curtailed his sway in federal appointments. Reynolds strongly supported the New Deal, while Bailey offered it mixed support at best. On the whole the Shelby Dynasty publicly backed the New Deal while quietly seeking to undermine its policies, depriving the state of extra federal funds. Shelby leaders openly split on the issue of repealing national Prohibition, with Gardner supporting repeal and Edwin Webb and Hoey opposing it.

As governor, Ehringhaus had to manage the worsening economic depression while also managing a large amount of public debt inherited from Gardner's tenure. Though he had campaigned against it, he decided to support the adoption of a sales tax to support the state's struggling school system. He also pushed for the consolidation of the office of the Director of Local Government into the office of the North Carolina State Treasurer. To save money, he implemented an austerity program that saw a reduction in state employee salaries and a temporary halt in road construction. He vocalized support for the New Deal but his policies did little to underpin it. After 1935 his popular support eroded.

Heyday
Following their defeat in 1932, the anti-machine faction in the Democratic Party began discussing strategies to defeat the Administration in 1936. They agreed that they would back Brummitt in the gubernatorial contest and Fountain in the race for the Senate seat held by Bailey due that year. This plan was derailed when Brummitt died in January 1935. Lieutenant Governor Alexander H. Graham, a conservative, then declared his candidacy for the gubernatorial office.

Once Hoey declared his candidacy and Gardner's support of him became clear, the term "Shelby Dynasty" eclipsed "the Administration" and "Gardner Machine" in describing the established political organization. Gardner disliked "Shelby Dynasty" and discouraged its use. The anti-machine faction settled on backing Ralph W. McDonald, a state legislator who had gained prominence for opposing the sales tax and supported the New Deal.

The campaign was initially mild, but intensified when Graham realized Hoey was cutting into his own base of support with the assistance of Gardner, who was raising funds for him. He subsequently attacked Hoey and attempted to make Gardner an issue of the campaign, accusing him of running the state "by long distance telephone". The Shelby Dynasty originally focused its efforts on defeating Graham and considered McDonald to be merely a liberal gadfly. McDonald called for the raising of taxes on stock trading and large corporations, and declared he would implement a state-based New Deal in North Carolina. He criticized state incumbents for offering ambiguous positions on the New Deal, and attacked the "Gardner-Ehringhaus-Hoey machine." Hoey called McDonald a character assassin and denied the existence of a machine.

Gardner also sought to remove Commissioner of Agriculture William A. Graham, Jr. from office. Graham was a cousin of the lieutenant governor and was expected to offer him support in the gubernatorial race. The Shelby Dynasty sought out candidates to keep the agriculture commissioner distracted in his own Democratic primary so he could not aid his cousin. Hoey's campaign workers approached a handful of prospective candidates before deciding to sponsor a run by Alamance County farmer W. Kerr Scott. In a close contest, Scott defeated Graham in the primary with 52 percent of the vote and was elected as Commissioner of Agriculture in the general election by a wide margin. He went on to be reelected to the office twice more and became a prominent state official, but never grew close to the leaders of Gardner's machine. Another prominent machine critic targeted by the Shelby Dynasty was State Auditor Baxter Durham; Shelby-backed George Ross Pou defeated him in the first primary. The Dynasty also tapped Thad A. Eure to become North Carolina Secretary of State and Wilkins P. Horton to run as Lieutenant Governor, but both of them failed to take the lead in the first primary.

In the first primary, Hoey earned 193,972 votes. McDonald placed second with 189,504 votes, and Graham third with 126,782. McDonald supporters' suspicions were aroused by the high volume of absentee ballots cast in the mountain counties in the West. One McDonald supporter in Yancey County reported being assaulted by Hoey's county campaign manager protesting to him that machine ward heelers were bringing voters to precincts in small groups to cast absentee ballots "like dumb cattle."

To mobilize support for Hoey, Gardner invited George Coan, the North Carolina Director of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), to his home in Washington D.C.. Once there, Gardner asked him to tap the 2,500 WPA supervisors in the state to politically organize for Hoey and convince the rest of the state's WPA workforce to vote for him. Coan agreed on the condition that Hoey, if elected, would appoint him chairman of the State Highway Commission. Gardner immediately agreed, but did not inform his brother-in-law (Coan was never given the position). He told Coan that he would send someone to Raleigh to inform Coan of the details of the plan. A week later, an associate of Gardner met Coan in his office and gave him a bag containing $25,000 to mobilize the WPA workers to vote. Gardner also solicited campaign contributions from banking executives to support Hoey; he convinced banker Robert M. Hanes—who had supported Graham in the first primary— to donate $25,000 to Hoey's campaign. He also personally spent $50,000 on the election. Both of these campaign contributions grossly overstepped the limits placed by North Carolina's campaign finance laws, but such regulations were generally ignored at the time.

With Dynasty support, Eure and Horton won their respective bids of the offices of Secretary of State and Lieutenant Governor in the second primary. Eure went on to hold his office for 52 years. Bailey also faced reelection in 1936, being challenged by Fountain. Though a prominent skeptic of the New Deal, he moderated his views and expressed support for the program during his campaign. Following his reelection, he resumed criticizing Roosevelt's policies.

The 1936 statewide elections ended with the Shelby Dynasty's control of North Carolina government solidified, and represented its peak influence. Gardner reflected in a letter to Robert W. Woodruff, the chairman of the board of The Coca-Cola Company, that, "Our forces are in complete control. I am willing to put the state government of North Carolina under the so-called Gardner Dynasty up against the state government of any of our sister states on the basis of economy, efficiency and integrity." He bragged that North Carolina was the only state where conservative Democrats had defeated left-leaning challengers. Hoey appointed Weathers Secretary of the North Carolina Railroad Commission. In 1937 R. Gregg Cherry was elected Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives. In that capacity he guided much of Hoey's legislative program through the House. Cherry subsequently became state Democratic chairman.

Hoey and Gardner came to oppose Roosevelt's domestic policies for fear of the growing strength of the federal government. While he personally supported New Deal initiatives, Gardner resisted Roosevelt's attempts to oust conservative Southern Senators from office who opposed the president's agenda. Particularly, he used his political machine to assist Bailey in his reelection efforts. Bailey grew fully opposed to the New Deal and coauthored the 1937 Conservative Manifesto, a document which denounced Roosevelt's policies.

Reynolds faced reelection to the U.S. Senate in 1938. Dynasty leaders considered Reynolds, in the words of Robert Hanes, "a clown, and a playboy and a wisecracker," but they were reluctant to challenge him. In 1937 conservative Democrats considered supporting several alternative candidates in the Democratic primary, including Governor Hoey. Hoey thought that a Senate campaign would jeopardize his legislative program in 1939 and quickly turned down consideration. The conservatives then sought out Cherry, who they thought could attract business backing and was resilient enough to withstand a campaign. He more seriously entertained the proposal, but decided he did not want to trade the possible Senate seat for his private legal practice and state Democratic chairmanship. He also thought it was possible that Reynolds would defeat him. Bailey, though he personally disliked Reynolds, proclaimed neutrality in the contest and declined to support any candidates. Some of Gardner's friends urged him to run, but he declared he was no longer interested in politics. By the summer of 1937, the conservative leadership in the state Democratic party decided to let Reynolds re-secure the Democratic nomination without challenge, feeling it was a better option than risking a split in the party. In October U.S. Representative Franklin Wills Hancock Jr., a liberal supporter of the New Deal, announced his candidacy. He soon paid a visit to Shelby, where he sought the support of the Dynasty. Gardner told Hancock he would lose and refused to campaign for him, but privately supported him over Reynolds. He then sought Bailey's endorsement, but the senator rebuffed him with his restatement of neutrality. In late May 1938 Ehringhaus endorsed Hancock, but this was the only major Dynasty support he acquired. Reynolds defeated Hancock by an overwhelming margin in the Democratic primary. Worried about Reynold's chances in the November general election due to a potential conservative backlash against the New Deal, Roosevelt asked Gardner to advise the senator's campaign. Gardner complied and Reynolds went on to win reelection.

War years
In the 1940 gubernatorial campaign there seven candidates in the Democratic primary, including J. Melville Broughton, Lee Gravely, Wilkins P. Horton, and Allen J. Maxwell. All of them had the favor of the Shelby Dynasty. No true "anti-machine" candidate appeared, and most North Carolinians were preoccupied with the outbreak of World War II with Europe; state elections were of less interest to the public. The Shelby Dynasty, facing no direct opposition, instead struggled to settle on a candidate. Early on, Gardner favored Maxwell; Gardner's son Ralph, a state senator, backed Horton; and Edwin Webb, Mull, and Weathers supported Broughton. The crowded contest led to a divided vote with Broughton garnering 147,386 votes, Horton earning 105,916, and Maxwell getting 102,095. Gardner convinced Maxwell to endorse Broughton and Horton decided not to call for a run-off. Broughton was conceded the nomination with 31 percent of the vote. Broughton, a friend of Gardner, was subsequently elected governor. After 1940 some of the territorial coherence of the Shelby Dynasty broke down, with the East, West, and Piedmont regions vying for control of state government, thus displacing the traditional East-West dynamic. The leaders of Piedmont origin proved most successful in asserting their dominance. Mull was elected Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1941.

During Broughton's tenure Weathers was made a member of the State Board of Education and the Board of Conservation and Development. He served in the North Carolina Senate from 1942 to 1950.

In the summer of 1943, Cherry travelled to Gardner's home in Shelby to ask for his support in the 1944 gubernatorial election. Gardner assented on the condition that Cherry, a notorious drinker, stay sober during his campaign. McDonald declared his candidacy, challenging Cherry as the Shelby Dynasty's choice while again calling for a state-based New Deal. Though his campaign was better organized than in 1936, McDonald failed to garner as much popular support by repeating his platform and in light of the war drawing the attention of the public. Cherry defeated him by over 50,000 votes.

Meanwhile, Reynolds attracted national controversy in the U.S. Senate as he expressed isolationist views in light of the outbreak of war and showed sympathy for fascist European leaders. In 1941 he became chair of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, a development widely criticized by national newspapers. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the United States' entry into World War II, he muted his isolationist views and generally supported the American war effort. However, most Democratic leaders in North Carolina were eager to unseat Reynolds in the 1944 elections, who they considered an embarrassment for the state. Gardner was particularly keen to have him replaced and, though he had stated that he would not seek to be elected to public office again, was strongly encouraged by other Democrats to challenge Reynolds in the upcoming contest. He later rejected this possibility due to health concerns after a sudden drop in his blood pressure during a public appearance in April 1943. He recruited Hoey to challenge Reynolds instead. Facing a decline in popularity, Reynolds announced that he would not seek a third term in the Senate. Hoey easily won the Democratic primary over Morrison. Reynolds briefly considered challenging Hoey in the 1950 Democratic primary before concluding that Hoey was too popular to be overcome.

In 1946 one of Gardner's sons who had been managing his textile mill died. Shaken by the event, Gardner considered closing his law practice in Washington and returning to Shelby. On the advice of friends he accepted President Harry Truman's appointment to become Undersecretary of the Treasury. He sold his textile business to the J. P. Stevens Textile Corporation and left his law practice. Later that year Truman offered to make Gardner the Ambassador to the Court of St James's. He suffered a heart attack and died on February 6, 1947 shortly before he was to depart to the United Kingdom to take up the post. Following Gardner's death, Robert Hanes, the president of Wachovia Bank and Trust Company, became the de facto leader of the dynasty. Bailey also died in late 1946. Cherry appointed state Democratic chairman William B. Umstead to fill the vacancy, despite him having previously expressed his intention to run for governor in 1948.

1948 gubernatorial election
By 1948 the Shelby Dynasty's reign had fostered public grievances. The Great Depression and the war had restricted the government's ability to maintain infrastructure and public services. Black people were frustrated with their subordinate social status, schools required expansions and renovations, and the highway system had largely ignored since the 1920s. The Dynasty had also expended much of its resources in holding back challengers and was weakened by growing factionalism in the Democratic Party. Returning war veterans and the entrance of a new generation of younger voters into state politics disrupted the existing social order, while organized labor—strengthened by New Deal programs—made calls for liberal reform. The death of Gardner deprived the Dynasty of its main leader, and Umstead's appointment to the Senate left the machine without an obvious gubernatorial candidate.

In April 1947 North Carolina State Treasurer Charles M. Johnson declared his candidacy for the 1948 gubernatorial contest. Johnson had served as treasurer since Gardner appointed him to the post in 1932. With Umstead's potential as a candidate gone, the Shelby Dynasty backed Johnson. Several others filed candidacies in the following months, including anti-machine attorney R. Mayne Albright, who called for increased spending on welfare and raising public employee salaries. Scott also mulled a candidacy. While serving as Commissioner of Agriculture, he worked to expand federal outreach to struggling farmers and, as a staunch supporter of the New Deal, believed government intervention could improve people's livelihoods. He also became well-attuned to the needs of rural North Carolinians. According to several accounts, Scott met with Hanes to ask for the support of the Shelby Dynasty if he ran for governor in 1948. Hanes reportedly told him that it was not his "turn" to have the office. He advised him that he would have to wait eight years for chance to run and emphasized that under the state's informal geographic rotation tradition, it was the turn of an easterner because the outgoing Cherry was from the western portion of the state. Scott approached several others to run against the dynasty to little avail before declaring himself a candidate in February 1948. Few political observers initially took Scott's candidacy seriously; Ehringhaus said, "he hasn't a chance in a thousand". Some of Johnson's supporters did perceive him as a threat and unsuccessfully tried to convince him to run for Lieutenant Governor.

Early on in the campaign Johnson operated cautiously and sought out the support of courthouse cliques while Scott adopted a populist message. In a radio address he declared, "I was not invited by the self-anointed king-makers of politics to run for governor. They demanded that I wait eight years. In effect, they said they had already picked your governor for you. They want you to confirm their choice in the Democratic primary on May 29. I say to you, a true Democrat, you ought to be allowed to pick your own governor. We fought two wars within memory of a good many of us to preserve that democratic right." While both candidates played to public demand for improved public services and increased appropriations for roads and education, Scott attempted to frame Johnson as a machine candidate and a lackey of banking interests. While Johnson defended "sound government" and pointed to the surplus in the state treasury as a sign of his success, Scott said there existed "a deficit in public services". Scott's campaign also made an issue of the treasury's handling of state funds, as over the previous years the office had deposited millions of dollars in state banks without charging them payments on interest. Scott called the deposits "lazy money" and accused Johnson of doing this to benefit his political allies in the financial industry while costing the state potential revenue.

Targeting a rural base, Scott called his supporters Branchhead Boys, meaning people who lived at head of branches—small creeks that flowed into rivers. He also quietly sought out the support of blacks. O. Max Gardner Jr., Gardner's son, supported Scott's campaign in Cleveland County. Scott also received some support from business leaders who had traditionally backed the Shelby Dynasty, as they saw potential benefits to their corporations if his reforms were implemented. There were also rumors that Cherry, apparently aggravated by the General Assembly's attention to Johnson and the treasurer's office rather than him during his last months as governor, privately supported Scott.

In the first primary, Johnson came in first with 170,141 votes. Scott placed second with 161,293 votes, and Albright placed third with 76,281. Scott had performed best in rural Eastern counties, whereas Johnson drew strong support from the machine-controlled Western ones. Scott called for a runoff, and continued to attack Johnson as a "ring-controlled candidate." His opponent countered pointing to Scott's position in the 1936 elections, saying he had the "opportunity to ride into office on the coattails of Hoey. Mr. Scott had nothing to say about a machine at that time. But now that he is the candidate for governor, he can talk of nothing else but machines."

The Shelby Dynasty was surprised by Scott's win. Scott went on to defeat the Republican candidate in the general election by a landslide and became governor in January 1949. Despite his victory, members of the Shelby Dynasty were reelected to the General Assembly continued to maintain control of the legislature.

As governor Scott continued to criticize business interests in an effort to differentiate himself from his predecessors. He had few allies in the General Assembly, which he thought was under the control of the corporate elite who had supported the Shelby Dynasty. Thus, he would bypass the legislature and appeal to popular support for his policies.

Broughton died on March 22, 1949.

Unlike the politics during the Shelby Dynasty's prime, the Graham-Willis campaign was heavily marked by race.

Demise
North Carolina politics in the early 1950s was characterized by intense competition between the Shelby Dynasty and Scott's supporters. In the 1952 gubernatorial campaign Umstead ran with the support of the Shelby Dynasty while the Branchhead Boys backed Hubert Olive. During the same election businessman Luther H. Hodges sought the office of lieutenant governor. Hodges had worked on state commissions during Gardner's and Ehringhaus's tenures, and ran with the encouragement of Hanes and politician B. Everett Jordan. Hanes partly prodded Hodges as a candidate so that he could have a trusted person assume the responsibilities of governor in case Umstead, ill in health, died during his presumptive gubernatorial term. Despite this, Hodges did not have the open support of the Shelby Dynasty. He also secured the acquiescence of Scott by backing his "Go Forward" road program, but did not have the obvious backing of the Branchhead Boys. Thus, Hodges pursued an independent campaign for office against legislator Roy Rowe.

In the Democratic primary Umstead defeated Olive and Hodges secured a plurality of votes over Rowe, who later conceded. In the November election Umstead and Hodges easily defeated their Republican opponents and won the respective offices of governor and lieutenant governor, allowing the Shelby Dynasty to reclaim control of North Carolina politics. Despite their victories, the two men were not close and Umstead kept himself distanced from Hodges. Umstead suffered a heart attack shortly after his inauguration in January 1953, rendering him bed-ridden for most of his tenure. During this time he refrained from delegating any of his responsibilities to Hodges. Hoey died on May 12, 1954.

Umstead died from a heart attack on November 7, 1954 and Hodges assumed the governorship. He undertook a campaign to relocate industry to North Carolina and oversaw the creation of public-private investment projects, such as the Research Triangle Park. He also was opposed to labor unions. His economic policies greatly pleased the business interests that had supported the Shelby Dynasty. However, he took little initiative in leading a political machine and frequently doled out appointments to candidates based on merit rather than their political loyalties. He took pride in his political independence and his decision to appoint some Republicans to state and local offices led Democratic county leaders to call a meeting in protest in 1957. Hodge's decision not to support the machine with patronage angered the politicians of the Shelby Dynasty and led to its dissolution. The overall efficacy of the state Democratic Party organization also declined during Hodge's tenure. Weathers died in 1958, and Mull died in 1962. The traditional concerns of voters over the conservative elitism of the machine and the populist reform supported by farmers were eclipsed by issues relating to race and segregation. The remnants of the Shelby Dynasty persisted as an "old guard" faction in the state Democratic Party through the 1960s.

Legacy and analysis
Political scientist V. O. Key Jr. wrote that the Shelby Dynasty underpinned an "economic oligarchy" that served the interests of banking and manufacturing leaders in the urban areas of the Piedmont. The Dynasty's ability to oversee the successful consecutive elections and administrations of governors over a 20 year period (1928–1948) was unmatched by all other Southern Democratic political machines with the exception of the Byrd Machine in Virginia. Historian Francis Butler Simpkins wrote that both machines were so powerful that they effectively served as "adjournments of the processes of popular government" but created "the best governments south of the Potomac". The breakdown of the Shelby Dynasty resulted in the loss of the ability of incumbent North Carolina governors to reliably nominate their successors. The Gardner-Webb Building, a structure in Shelby which hosted offices for Gardner, the Webb brothers, and Mull, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing building in the Central Shelby Historic District.