In 1975, Calhoun was elected to the Alexandria City Council on the Republican ticket, serving two three-year terms.
In 1984, he ran again for a vacant seat on the city council and served until December 12, 1988, when he was elected in a special election to the Virginia Senate, representing the 30th Senate District, which included most of Alexandria and some precincts in Fairfax County, Virginia.
[2] He served one partial and one full term in the Senate before being defeated by the mayor of Alexandria, Democrat Patsy Ticer, in 1995.
[1] He was selected as a director of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, serving from 1997 to 2003.
[3] On August 6, 2020, Calhoun died of prostate cancer in Berryville, Virginia, at age 83.