William Lee Cazort

Who was William Lee Cazort?

William Lee Cazort, Sr., was the second and fourth Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas. Originally from Johnson County in northwestern Arkansas, Cazort served from 1929 to 1931 under Governor Harvey Parnell and from 1933 to 1937 under Governor Junius Marion Futrell.

On three occasions, however, Cazort failed in bids for the pivotal Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He lost in 1924 to Tom Jefferson Terral, when the Ku Klux Klan was the overwhelming state issue. Cazort and rival Terral carried Klan support. A third candidate John Ellis Martineau, ran without Klan backing and lost but two years later in 1926 unseated Governor Terral, one of the few chief executives in Arkansas to serve only a single two-year term. In 1930, as the sitting lieutenant governor, and with the KKK no longer an issue, Cazort challenged Governor Parnell. He questioned Parnell's spending and cronyism in the state highway department. Prior to the primary, Cazort withdrew to support Brooks Hays, later a U.S. Representative from Little Rock. Parnell was also Cazort's predecessor as lieutenant governor. Cazort was again elected lieutenant governor in 1932 and 1934, when he drew no opposition.