Democrats upset by their two-term Delegate Isaac Stevens prevented his renomination at the party convention in 1861, opening the door for Garfielde to run as the Democratic candidate for the Thirty-seventh Congress.
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He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1872 to the Forty-third Congress.
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After switching parties, Garfielde was elected as a Republican to the Forty-first and Forty-second Congresses (March 4, 1869 – March 3, 1873).