U.S. Congressman. He was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-first Congress to fill the vacancy caused by a resignation. He was re-elected to the Seventy-second Congress, serving from February 15, 1930 to March 3, 1933. Finley missed 62 of 206 roll call votes, which was higher than average. He was not a candidate for the 1932 election. He was the son of long-time politically prominent Hugh Franklin Finley, United States Congressman from Kentucky from March 4, 1887 to March 3, 1891, and his mother Jane Renfroe. After attending public schools, he attended Milligan College. He was employed as a coal operator, banker, and publisher before entering politics. He was a member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives from 1894 to 1896, a delegate to the Republican state convention in 1895, and served as Secretary of State of Kentucky from 1896 to 1900 under Governor William O'Connell Bradley, the first Republican governor of Kentucky. On January 30, 1900, Democrat candidate for Governor of Kentucky William Goebel was shot while the 1899 election results were being contested. Goebel had lost the election by a mere 2,000 votes and fifteen years earlier, had been tried for murder of a political rival and acquitted. There was a politically chaotic climate before and after the shooting. After being declared governor by the courts, Goebel died on January 3rd. Sixteen Republicans, including Finley, were suspected of involvement in the murder and arrest warrants were issued. Documents state that he would have been clearly "denied a fair trial." Fleeing to Indiana for sanctuary, he resided nine years there while the case was being ligated as the Republican Governor of Indiana Winfred Durbin refused to honor any extradition request to return him to Kentucky. He returned to Kentucky in 1909, after Republican Kentucky Governor Wilson extended him clemency. Even after this ordeal, he remained interested in politics becoming chairman of the Republican executive committee of the Eleventh Kentucky Congressional District from 1912 to 1928 before becoming a United States Congressman. He never married. While his parents and all but one sibling are buried in Finley Cemetery, he is buried in the Highland Cemetery with his sister Margaret Finley Wood and her in-laws.