[dropcap]T[/dropcap]. Whitfield Davidson was elected lieutenant governor on Nov. 7, 1922, but the second highest office in the Lone Star State turned out not to be a short-cut to the top rung on the political ladder.

The twenty-eighth lieutenant governor of Texas has a lot of company in the history books.  Of the 44 men who have held the Number Two job in the state government, only a baker’s dozen spent even a day as governor.

In the beginning, the junior governorship looked like a sure-fir...