Page "David B. Henderson" Paragraph 4

In 1882, he was elected as a Republican to represent Iowa's 3rd congressional district in the U. S. House.

He served in the Forty-eighth and the nine succeeding Congresses, from March 4, 1883 to March 3, 1903.

He first ran for Speaker following the 1888 elections, finishing well behind Thomas Brackett Reed and runner-up William McKinley.

Prior to his election as speaker, he served as the chairman of the Committee on Militia ( in the Fifty-first Congress ), and chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary ( in the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses ).

He was also the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Appropriations during the period of Democratic control, but when Republicans returned to control of the House after the 1894 elections, Speaker Reed departed with tradition by returning the chairmanship to Joseph Gurney Cannon, who had served more nonconsecutive terms in the House and would have outranked Henderson had Cannon not lost his House seat for two years.