Short was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-first Congress (March 4, 1929 – March 3, 1931) and was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1930 to the Seventy-second Congress. He resumed his former professional pursuits and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1932. Short was an unsuccessful candidate in 1932 for nomination to the United States Senate but was elected to the Seventy-fourth Congress and the ten succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1935 – January 3, 1957). At the 1940 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Short received 108 delegate votes for the party's vice presidential nomination and was the runner-up to the eventual nominee, Charles L. McNary, who received votes from 848 delegates.