Whereas his father had joined the Republican Party after the American Civil War, the younger Charles Thomas was a Democrat.

Thomas was born in Beaufort, North Carolina, August 21, 1861; attended New Bern (N.C.) Academy and Emerson Institute, in Washington, D.C. while his father was in office.

Thomas was graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1881.

Quickly becoming involved in politics, Thomas was elected to a term in the North Carolina House of Representatives (1887).

Following passage of the new disfranchising constitution, which suppressed black voting, Thomas was elected as a Democrat from North Carolina's 3rd congressional district to the Fifty-sixth and to the five succeeding Congresses (serving March 4, 1899 – March 3, 1911).