Before the elections 1905 Staalman founded his own party the Christian Democratic Party to enter in the elections. He was unable to win a seat. Between 1909 and 1917 Staalman entered in several other elections. In 1917 Staalman was closely defeated by Pieter Oud for the Den Helder seat. In the 1918 elections, the first election with a system of proportional representation and male universal suffrage the threshold for admission to the House of Representatives was relatively low, one needed more than half of a percentage of the vote to be elected. Consequently the CDP was elected with only 10,000 votes (that is .8% of vote). Staalman played only a minor role in parliament.