Daniel had grown up as a Conservative Democrat like his father, but became a Republican sometime in the 1960s when many Southern Democrats dissatisfied with the policies of desegregation left the Democratic Party. In 1972, Daniel, who was then serving on the Prince George County Planning Commission, ran for the open seat in after a redistricting controversy and the retirement of longtime incumbent Watkins Abbitt. He won in the five-candidate general election, becoming the first Republican to represent this district since the end of the Reconstruction Era.