 In the senate, he became associated with a group of like-minded legislators, largely from the rural South Carolina lowcountry, that was known as the "Barnwell Ring".Due to their legislative seniority, these fiscal conservatives held most of the political power in South Carolina from the 1930s to the 1960s.Jefferies was in his fourth four-year term in the senate in 1941 when he was elected chair of the powerful finance committee and president pro tempore of the senate.