text: Though Ferguson was unsuccessful in the presidential election, the American Party did elect four members to the Texas House of Representatives; Walter J. Kveton of Sealy, Otto F. Menking of Fayetteville, Henry Julius Neinast of Burton, and John Henry Wessels of La Grange. On January 28, 1922, Ferguson dissolved the American Party in order to run for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in the 1922 election.
  Senate bid and First Gentleman of Texas
  Ferguson failed at his bid for the United States Senate in 1922, losing in the Democratic runoff election to Earle Bradford Mayfield.
  In 1924, Ferguson entered his wife Miriam, known as "Ma", in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. She won that and the general election, saying that she intended to rely on her husband for advice. In 1924, unable to run under his own name, Mr. Ferguson, known as "Pa", ran his wife's campaign for the governorship against Judge Felix Robertson, the candidate endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. The Fergusons beat Robertson and went to the Governor's Mansion for a third time. Two years later they lost a reelection bid amid new scandals concerning excessive pardons and political patronage abuses.
  Miriam Ferguson served two nonconsecutive two-year terms as governor: January 20, 1925 – January 17, 1927 and January 17, 1933 – January 15, 1935.
  "Ma" Ferguson became the second female governor in the United States, after Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming. Both women followed husbands who had served earlier. Nellie Tayloe Ross was sworn in on January 5, 1925; Miriam Ferguson followed on January 20.