On March 21, 1944, he gave his first tie breaking vote, in which he voted in favor, when the state Senate voted nineteen in favor to nineteen against on a bill authorizing chancery clerks to use photostat machines in recording records. In April 1944, Wright became acting governor when Governor Bailey went to Kansas City to attend the Methodist general conference as one of Mississippi's two delegates. In 1946, he attempted to call another session of the state legislature to have the state's election laws changed to prevent black voters from participating in the 1947 primaries. In June 1946, he refused to authorize the extradition of George Johnson, a black man facing charges of child abandonment, back to California and refused to commute the death sentence of James Leo Williams, a 25 year old black man convicted for murder, while serving as acting governor. On August 1, 1946, he was made aware of plans by the Department of Justice to investigate the activities of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. Wright claimed that he did not know of any activities conducted by the Ku Klux Klan and that the organization had not existed in the state since 1923. On October 30, 1946, Governor Bailey suffered a stroke and was in poor health for the next four days until he died from a spinal tumor on November 2. Wright was supposed to leave the state for a physical checkup, but remained in Mississippi due to Bailey's poor health and succeed him following his death to fulfill the remainder of his term as the 49th Governor. On November 7, he was formally inaugurated by Chief Justice Sydney M. Smith without a ceremony. The United States Senate, controlled by a Republican majority, refused to seat Senator Theodore G. Bilbo at the request of Senator Glen H. Taylor. Wright threatened to appoint Bilbo to serve as an interim Senator if he was not allowed to be seated, for which the Harrison County affiliate of the Bilbo Campaign Committee passed a resolution praising Wright. The issue was resolved when it was proposed that Bilbo's credentials remain on the table while he returned home to Mississippi to seek medical treatment for oral cancer. When Bilbo died on August 21, 1947, Wright stated that "He was a long and faithful servant of the state. He was an outstanding official whose loss will be felt by Mississippi." On May 20, the Amalgamated Association of Street Car, Electric Railway and Motor Coarch Employees of America, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, organized a walkout and strike to improve the wages of bus drivers working for Southern Trailways, the Mississippi affiliate of the Trailways Transportation System.