He appealed to Georgians as a defender of the old way of life when he was first elected to the state legislature, representing McDuffie County, in 1882. Watson discovered that the support of the black voting population was necessary to win. Once in office he supported the elimination of the state's convict lease system, favored taxes to support public education, and championed the needs of poor farmers and sharecroppers of both races.
... He also earned the support of many rural black voters in his 1892 bid for reelection to Congress through his condemnation of lynching and his protection of a black supporter from a lynch mob in the final days before the election. Nevertheless, he was narrowly defeated by his Democratic opponent, as he would be again in 1894, when there was substantial evidence of election fraud, and thereafter divisions increased between the Democrats and the Populists.
... Although Watson had long supported black enfranchisement in Georgia and throughout the South, he changed his stance by 1904. Resentful of Democratic manipulation and exploitation of black voters and strongly opposed to the increased visibility and influence of such leaders as W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, Watson endorsed the disenfranchisement of African American voters, and no longer defined Populism in racially inclusive terms. During his 1908 presidential bid he ran as a white supremacist and launched vehement diatribes in his magazine and newspaper against blacks.
Watson also launched an aggressive campaign against the Catholic Church. He took issue with the hierarchy of the church and railed against abuses by its leaders. He mistrusted the church's foreign missions and its historic political activities. The Catholic Church responded by putting pressure on businesses that advertised in Watson's publications, resulting in an effective boycott. In 1913, during the trial of Leo Frank, Watson's strong attacks on Frank and on the pervasive influence of Jewish and northern interests in the state heavily influenced sentiment against Frank, who was lynched by a mob in 1915.