Lodge was elected as a Republican from Connecticut's 4th congressional district to the 80th and 81st Congresses, serving from January 3, 1947 to January 3, 1951. He did not run for a third term in 1950, choosing instead to run for governor of Connecticut in that year's election. He ran against incumbent governor Chester Bowles and defeated him in what was described as a "bitter" election, in which Lodge sought to portray Bowles as an extreme left-winger. Lodge served as governor from January 1951 to January 1955; he was the first governor of Connecticut to serve after the state's rules were changed to have elections every four years instead of every two years.