 The election of 1892 marked Sibley's entrance onto the national political stage.He was initially nominated for Congress by the Prohibition Party, who expected that the Democratic Party would soon follow suit by nominating him as their candidate in that district.Although not a total abstainer from alcohol, the newcomer Sibley won the respect of the Democratic establishment for his political courage by pointedly refusing to drink at a private banquet hosted by local brewers in the district, declaring that "I have been trusted by the Prohibitionists with their nomination, and I will not be false to the confidence which they have placed in me, not even in secret and not even as the price of a seat in the House of Representatives."