In 1854 the Whig party nominated for Governor General Alfred Dockery, of Richmond county, and at that time Governor Bragg's name was prominently mentioned as the Democratic candidate. General Dockery opened his campaign at Gatesville, in Gates county. Bragg was there attending court, and he was called on to reply, which he did very successfully. It is said that he made a speech that much gratified and pleased his party friends. The week following the General spoke at Edenton, during court, and Bragg again replied with equal effect. Soon thereafter the Democratic convention assembled in Raleigh, and Bragg was unanimously nominated for Governor. He accepted this nomination with reluctance, and for a little while considered it. He had a good practice, amounting to about thirty-five hundred dollars a year. His home was comfortable and attractive, and his manner of life was quiet and contented. It was natural that a man thus situated and surrounded, and not beset by the disquietude of political strife and commotion should hesitate before disrupting such congenial associations. Upon reflection, however, he accepted, and when his courts were ended, joined General Dockery, and entered upon one of the most remarkable campaigns ever had in the State. General Dockery had been canvassing without any regular opponent, but the training incident to his having been pitted against some of the best Democratic talent in the State, as he went along, had developed him into a dangerous antagonist even for Bragg. The campaign waxed hotter and hotter, up to the day of the election, and, in all probability, had the election been a month later, Dockery would have been victorious. An incident of the campaign may afford passing amusement. Dockery, in one of his speeches, had characterized his opponent as the aristocratic candidate, and said that he drove a fine horse, rode in a high sulky, and wore kid gloves. Bragg, in his rejoinder, stated that he was not at all an aristocrat, but only a hard-toiling lawyer, and the son of a plain carpenter, who had exhausted his means in educating his children. "But, fellow-citizens," said he, "General Dockery himself is in fact the aristocratic candidate, for he lives in the only brick house in the whole county of Richmond." At this juncture the General rose right up behind him, and, raising up his hands before the crowd, exclaiming in a loud voice: "Yes, and these old yaller hands made all the bricks that went into it, and toted them up thar, too." The effect was crushing, the crowd yelled, and Bragg was afterwards heard to say he wished he had left the old brick house alone. He defeated Dockery by a majority of two thousand and eighty-five votes, and was inaugurated Governor of North Carolina on the first day of January, 1855.