Later Life and Death
On a joint ballot of the General Assembly in 1900, Bradley was defeated for a seat in the U.S. Senate by a vote of 75–54. After the unseating of Taylor, the state Republican party split into factions, with Godfrey Hunter at the head of one and Bradley at the head of the other. The two factions formed a tentative alliance to nominate Danville law professor John W. Yerkes in the special election called after Goebel's assassination, but Yerkes lost to Democratic nominee J. C. W. Beckham. At the 1904 Republican National Convention, Bradley was chosen to second the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt for president.
Factionalism again marked the Republican nominating convention in 1904. Bradley and his faction backed Augustus E. Willson for governor, while Hunter and Yerkes favored Louisville businessman Morris B. Belknap, the son-in-law of former governor Simon Buckner. When convention officials ruled against a county delegation committed to Willson, he withdrew from the contest. Bradley was angered as Belknap was nominated on the first ballot and subsequently lost to J. C. W. Beckham, who was allowed to seek a second term because a court ruled he had not been elected to a full term in 1900.
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