In 2002, Barham was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana's 5th congressional district, a position won by Rodney Alexander, a state representative from Jackson Parish, who in 2004 switched to Republican affiliation and remained in Congress until his retirement in 2013. Among Barham's congressional campaign donors were later State Representative Frank A. Hoffmann and former state Senator Billy Boles, both of Monroe, the Alexandria timberman Roy O. Martin, Jr., the Bastrop architect Hugh G. Parker, Jr., and the Lamar Advertising Company executive and former legislator Kevin P. Reilly, Sr., of Baton Rouge,