Between 1894 and 1901 Andries Staalman was a member of the House of Representatives for the district of Den Helder. He was a member of the main Reformed party, the Anti Revolutionary Party (ARP). He operated on the left of the ARP and he advocated increased government interference in the economy and the extension of suffrage. In 1901 Staalman was re-elected into the House of Representatives on an Anti-Revolutionary Ticket, but he was dissatisfied by the conservative course of the ARP. Staalman therefore sat as an independent Anti-Revolutionary. He was dissatisfied by the conservative composition and program of the cabinet Abraham Kuyper had formed after the elections and did not support it.