Gubernatorial Election of 1820
Desha was one of four candidates who sought the governorship of Kentucky in 1820. In the aftermath of the Panic of 1819 – the first major financial crisis in United States history – the primary issue of the campaign was debt relief. Sitting governor Gabriel Slaughter had lobbied for some measures favored by the state's large debtor class, particularly punitive taxes against the branches of the Second Bank of the United States in Louisville and Lexington. The Second Party System had not yet developed, but there were nonetheless two opposing factions that arose around the debt relief issue. The first – primarily composed of land speculators who had bought large land parcels on credit and were unable to repay their debts due to the financial crisis – was dubbed the Relief Party or faction and favored more legislation favorable to debtors. Opposed to them was the Anti-Relief Party or faction; it was composed primarily of the state's aristocracy, many of whom were creditors to the land speculators and demanded that their contracts be adhered to without interference from the government. They claimed that no government intervention could effectively aid the debtors and that attempts to do so would only prolong the economic depression.
Although Desha was clearly aligned with the Relief faction, the faction's leader was John Adair, a veteran of the War of 1812 whose popularity was augmented because of his very public defense of the Kentuckians who served under him at the Battle of New Orleans against charges of cowardice by Andrew Jackson. Adair won a close election with 20,493 votes, besting William Logan's 19,947 votes, Desha's 12,418 votes, and Anthony Butler's 9,567 votes. Relief partisans also secured control of both houses of the Kentucky General Assembly. Much debt relief legislation was passed during Adair's term, but as his term neared expiration, the Kentucky Court of Appeals struck down one popular and expansive debt relief law as unconstitutional, ensuring that debt relief would again be the central issue in the upcoming gubernatorial election.
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