In 1938, Prentice Cooper, with Crump's endorsement, challenged Browning for the party's nomination for governor. After learning that Crump had registered over 100,000 voters in Shelby County, Browning sought to replace the primary system with a "county unit" system, which would equalize votes by county, thereby reducing the influence of Shelby. The bill passed, but was declared unconstitutional by the Tennessee Supreme Court prior to the election. Browning also formed a commission to investigate voter fraud in Shelby County, and managed to have over 13,000 voters purged. His efforts fell short, however, and he was defeated by Cooper, 231,852 votes to 158,854. Following his defeat in the primary, Browning returned to Huntingdon to practice law. In 1942, he was elected Chancellor of the Eighth Chancery District without opposition. In the months following the U.S. entry into World War II, Browning consistently sought a commission in the U.S. Army, but was thwarted by political foes. He finally appealed directly to the Army's adjutant general in Washington, and was commissioned in 1943 with the rank of captain. He attended the School of Military Government in Charlottesville, Virginia, which trained military officers in matters related to governing occupied territories, and was eventually promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He initially served as deputy head of the Belgium-Luxembourg mission, which aimed to restore civilian government to these areas, and aided in the Allied victory at the Battle of the Bulge in early 1945. In September 1946, Browning was appointed commander of the military government in the Bremen enclave as part of the Allied Occupation of Germany. Second gubernatorial term Browning challenged incumbent Governor Jim Nance McCord for the nomination in 1946, though he was still in Europe and did not actively campaign. Though he lost, his 120,535 votes (to McCord's 187,119) showed he still had substantial support in Tennessee. In 1948, Browning again sought the nomination against McCord. Realizing it would take a considerable effort to defeat the Crump machine, he teamed up with Congressman Estes Kefauver, who was challenging Crump's candidate, Tom Stewart, for one of the state's U.S. Senate seats. Crump ran attack ads against Browning and Kefauver, criticizing the former for issuing too many pardons as governor, and accusing the latter of being a communist sympathizer. Browning compared Crump to Adolf Hitler, and told stories about Crump sneaking through Memphis cemeteries at night to find names of dead people to