Jonathan M. Davis

Jonathan M. Davis
22nd Governor of Kansas
In office January 8, 1923 – January 12, 1925
Lieutenant	Benjamin S. Paulen
Preceded by	Henry J. Allen
Succeeded by	Benjamin S. Paulen
Member of the Kansas Senate
In office 1915-1917
Member of the Kansas House of Representatives
In office 1905-1913
Personal details
Born	April 27, 1871 Bourbon County, Kansas
Died	June 27, 1943 (aged 72) Bourbon County, Kansas
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Mary Purdom
Profession	farmer, postmaster, politician

Jonathan McMillan Davis (April 27, 1871 – June 27, 1943) was an American politician and the 22nd Governor of Kansas.

Davis was born in Bronson, Kansas, to Jonathan McMillan and Eve (Holeman) Davis.^[1] His education was in the public schools and the University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He left college without graduating due to the death of his father. He married Mary "Mollie" Purdom on September 26, 1894, and they had four children. Mollie died in 1926 and he married Mary E. (Winston) Raymond on December 16, 1931.

Davis served in the Kansas House of Representatives from 1905 to 1913; and then in the Kansas State Senate from 1915 to 1917.^[2]

Davis won a narrow victory over Republican William Yoast Morgan in the 1922 Kansas gubernatorial election and was sworn into office on January 8, 1923. During his tenure, taxes were cut, prohibition and women's suffrage were endorsed, increased funding secured for veteran's pensions, banking procedures were limited, an improved road bill was authorized, utilities were controlled, and the chancellor of the University of Kansas was fired.^[3]

Davis was the Democratic candidate in the 1924 Kansas gubernatorial election but the independent candidacy of publisher William Allen White on an anti-Ku Klux Klan platform split the progressive vote and Republican Benjamin S. Paulen was elected by a plurality.

Davis was arrested the day after his term ended. He was indicted twice for bribery, tried twice and acquitted both times.^[4] His defense was led by Populist lawyers Alexander Miller Harvey and Frank Doster.

He was again the Democratic nominee in the 1926 Kansas gubernatorial election but lost in a landslide to the incumbent Paulen. In 1930 Davis was the Democratic nominee for US Senate opposing incumbent Republican Arthur Capper and suffered another landslide loss.

In 1936 Davis made another run for governor but lost the Democratic primary to Walter A. Huxman. He ran for governor as an independent in 1938 but received less than 2% of the vote.

Davis died on June 27, 1943, following a lengthy illness and several repeat visits to a Fort Scott hospital. He is interred at Bronson Cemetery in Bronson, Kansas.

• Jonathan M. Davis at Find a Grave
• The Political Graveyard
• National Governors Association
• Publications concerning Kansas Governor Davis' administration available via the KGI Online Library