Stuart became so popular in the Commonwealth that he decided to run for Governor in 1909. During this era the Governor usually was appointed, rather than elected, by the state Martin machine. Stuart ran as an anti-machine candidate, but he and Martin reached an accommodation whereby Stuart would not oppose Martin's candidate, William Hodges Mann. As part of a package deal Martin convinced Stuart to run for Congress in 1910 against C. Bascom Slemp, the Republican incumbent of Southwest Virginia's 9th Congressional District. Slemp was well entrenched, and Martin felt that another far Southwest Virginian stood a decent chance of defeating Slemp. The deal with Martin further provided that if Stuart did run against Slemp instead of running for Governor, and if he lost, Martin would support his candidacy for Governor when Mann's term expired. 

          Congressman Slemp was the second half of two generations of men of the same name - Campbell Bascom Slemp. The elder of these two gentlemen was referred to as Col. Campbell Slemp. He had been commanding officer of the 64th Virginia Mounted Infantry, CSA. Even though his Confederate credentials were impeccable, after the war he joined that faction of the Democratic Party run by General Billy Mahone. Virginia faced a massive debt that it had incurred before the war for canal and turnpike construction. These projects were destroyed by the war and could not pay for themselves. After the war the issue was what to do about the bonds that had been issued for their construction, and for which the Commonwealth of Virginia was now responsible. Part of the Democratic Party wanted to pay the bonds off at face value, but this would not leave enough money in the state treasury to fund the public school system. Another faction wanted to “readjust” the bonded debt and to pay it off at a discount, thus allowing for the funding of the public school system. Colonel Slemp became a champion of the “Readjuster” movement. This faction of the Democratic Party soon split off and became Republicans. At this point Col. Slemp died, and his son, referred to as C. Bascom Slemp, took over his political career where his father had left off. C. Bascom Slemp became the only Republican Congressman elected from the South. This was in an era when the national government was solidly under the control of the Republicans. Thus Slemp controlled all federal patronage in the South, a situation that gave him tremendous political power. 

            The Democratic Party of Virginia, including both factions, was united in its desire to dethrone Slemp from his position. Both machine and anti-machine Democrats poured resources into the “Fighting 9th Congressional District”.  Among the Democratic politicians coming to the 9th District to speak for Stuart were Thomas Martin himself, and Henry D. Flood. The prominent independent Carter Glass came to speak for Stuart. Similarly the national Republican Party did everything it could to retain this seat. Even former President Theodore Roosevelt spoke for Slemp in Bristol.