In 1960, Running as a Democrat, Carey was elected to the United States House of Representatives unseating Republican incumbent Francis E. Dorn. Carey's seven terms in office coincided with major demographic changes in his district, as exemplified by deindustralization, concomitant gentrification and the opening of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge (which spurred migration to the more suburban borough of Staten Island) in 1964. Although he has been erroneously characterized as the first congressman to oppose the Vietnam War, he may have been the first member of the Brooklyn congressional delegation to take this stance.