 Murdock was covering the Kansas legislature when he decided to run for a vacancy in the United States House of Representatives and was elected to follow Chester I.Long, who had resigned to take a Senate seat, on May 26, 1903, taking office on November 9, 1903.During the 1912 United States presidential election he left the Republican Party to support and join former President Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party and was the party's choice for Speaker of the House in 1912.