After studying law at the University of Virginia , Robinson returned to Arkansas , winning election to the Arkansas General Assembly . He won election to the United States House of Representatives , serving from 1903 to 1913 . He won election as Governor of Arkansas in 1912 , but resigned from that position in 1913 to take a seat in the Senate . In the Senate , Robinson established himself as a progressive and strong supporter of President Woodrow Wilson . Robinson served as the chairman of the 1920 Democratic National Convention and won election as the Senate Minority Leader in 1923 . He sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1924 election and was nominated as the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1928 . The Democratic ticket of Al Smith and Robinson lost in a landslide to the Republican ticket of Herbert Hoover and Charles Curtis
1920 Democratic National Convention
1920 Democratic National Convention
Joseph Taylor Robinson