Martin upset the favorite in December 1893, and the following year formally secured election to the U.S. Senate, helped by his new marriage. Re-elected several times (first through the legislature and later by voters after the seat became subject to direct election), Martin represented Virginia in the United States Senate for nearly twenty-five years. In 1899, Martin faced Governor James Hoge Tyler (a fellow Democrat whom he had supported as Lieutenant Governor and Governor in 1897), but retained his seat. In 1905, Democrats shifted from the caucus system to a primary, and Governor Andrew J. Montague opposed Martin, as an Independent running on an anti-machine platform, but Martin won anyway, having greatly improved as a public speaker in the intervening years, and reinforcing his political organization by disenfranchising blacks and poor whites by the legislative adoption of the new state constitution in 1902. In 1910, Senator Daniel died, and Martin's ally Claude Swanson succeeded him. In 1911, Martin and Claude Swanson faced an internal Democratic party challenge from Congressman William A. Jones, the main leader of Progressive Democrats, and Carter Glass, but retained their seats by a 2-to-1 margin. Senator Martin ran unopposed for re-election to the Senate in 1918. Martin and his organization worked to defeat various Progressive forces in their own Democratic party, as well as defeat Progressive Republicans (including President Theodore Roosevelt, who kept a camp in Virginia and noted his Confederate-sympathizing mother and her ancestors). They also worked disenfranchise African-Americans in the state, especially at the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1902. As shown by the multiple internal challenges, they were less cohesive than the Byrd Organization would be for decades after Martin's death. Nonetheless, Martin was also pragmatic, which assisted his rise in the Senate Democratic hierarchy. Before the 1911 election, fellow Senate Democrats elected him Minority Leader. He withdrew as a candidate for re-election to that post in 1913, and in 1915 spent most of the campaign season in Albemarle County, since his wife's tuberculosis had worsened (and she died by year's end). Martin first opposed Woodrow Wilson, a former Virginian and Progressive Democrat, but when Wilson was elected (and re-elected), Martin eventually supported parts of Wilson's agenda. After his wife's death in 1915, Martin devoted himself to Senate business, becoming Majority leader in 1917, and securing the declaration which supported American entry into World War I. However, Republicans regained control of the Senate in