He served two terms in the New York State Assembly from 1967 to 1971 and defeated long-time incumbent Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in a primary challenge on his way to being elected to the House of Representatives.

Rangel rose rapidly in the Democratic ranks in the House, combining solidly liberal views with a pragmatic style that allowed him to find political and legislative compromises.

[5] He emerged as a leader among the black legislators in the state and became politically friendly with Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller, who arranged for Rangel to run on the Republican as well as Democratic ballot line during his 1968 re-election.

[45] In 1970, Rangel ran for election to the U.S. House of Representatives, challenging long-time incumbent Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., in the Democratic primary in New York's 18th congressional district.

[51] He did face a mid-career primary challenge in 1994 when two-term New York City Councilman Adam Clayton Powell IV was his opponent and held Rangel to 58 percent of the vote.

[5] On April 14, 1972, Rangel and Louis Farrakhan interfered in the investigation of the murder of New York Police Department patrolman Philip Cardillo, who was fatally shot in a Harlem Nation of Islam mosque where Malcolm X used to preach.

[60] Some police department officials also limited the investigation, including deputy commissioner for public affairs Benjamin Ward, who had ordered all white officers away from the scene in acquiescing to the demands of Farrakhan and Rangel.

[47][53] Rangel built alliances with others in Congress (collaborating for example with Michigan Republican Guy Vander Jagt on welfare reform measures), with people in governmental agencies, and with the Carter administration.

By that time Rangel was known as one of the "Gang of Four", who along with his old mentor Percy Sutton, city and state figure Basil A. Paterson, and future mayor David Dinkins were the most prominent politicians in Harlem.

[69] His position on Ways and Means allowed him to bring federal monies to the state and city for transit projects, industrial development, Medicare needs, low-income housing, and shelters for the homeless.

[64] In the negotiations Rangel successfully argued for dropping more lower-income people from the tax rolls;[64] the elimination of six million households from federal income taxation was hailed as a wise policy by both liberal and conservative groups.

[81] During the 1991 Gulf War, Rangel demanded that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell investigate allegations of discrimination from black members of the New York Army National Guard regarding combat training and treatment.

[83] Rangel also strongly opposed the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, accusing Clinton of supporting it for political reasons and predicting its consequences would cast a million children into poverty.

[39] His 1993 legislation created "empowerment zones", which provided tax incentives for investment and job creation in inner urban areas;[39] it would eventually account for $5 billion in federal spending across the nation's cities.

[51][67] Rangel played a specific role in the creation of the 1995 Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, which led to a $500 million spending of public and private monies towards changing the face of Harlem, including gentrification effects.

[50][67] During the late 1990s, Rangel led an outreach effort on behalf of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that sought to gain African American votes for white candidates in key swing districts.

On March 15, 1999, the congressman was arrested along with two other prominent African American leaders (civil rights activist Al Sharpton and former Mayor David Dinkins) for protesting the fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old immigrant to the United States from Guinea, by four white and Hispanic New York City police officers.

"[90] During the early 2000s Rangel advocated continued funding of anti-poverty efforts, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Child care and development block grant.

[39][91] In July 2004, Rangel was the first of three sitting U.S. House members to be arrested on trespassing charges, for protesting human rights abuses in Sudan in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington[92] (Bobby Rush and Joe Hoeffel would follow).

[102] By 2007 the amount had been reduced to $2 million, but the funding for the center, whose purpose was to bring more poor and minority students into politics, was the target of criticism from Representative John B. T. Campbell III of California and other Republicans as an abuse of the earmark process and as Rangel's "Monument to Me".

[52] Ebony magazine termed Rangel's ascent to the chairmanship "a watershed moment for African-Americans, who historically have been shut out when it comes to deciding how to divvy up the trillions of dollars in the federal government's budget".

[115] A September 2008 New York Post article reported that Rangel had been using a House parking garage as free storage space for his Mercedes-Benz for years, in apparent violation of Congressional rules.

[136] The Ethics Committee continued to investigate the charges against Rangel relating to obtaining rent-stabilized apartments, fundraising, and failure to disclose rental income from his Dominican villa.

[140] Momentum quickly built against Rangel, with 30 or more Democrats planning to oppose his continued chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, in a full House vote being pushed by Republicans.

[160] He walked out of the hearing at the start, saying that he was unable to afford representation after having paid his previous lawyers over $2 million, and arguing unsuccessfully that the proceeding should be delayed until he could arrange for a legal defense fund.

[161][162] Two of the charges were focused on his actions with regards to soliciting funds and donations for the Rangel Center from those with business before the Ways and Means Committee; four were for improper use of Congressional letterhead and other House resources in those solicitations; one was for submitting incomplete and inaccurate financial disclosure statements; one was for using one of his Harlem apartments as an office when he had Congressional dealings with the landlord; one was for failing to pay taxes on his Dominican villa; and two reiterated these charges in describing general violations of House rules.

[186] Rangel faced no Republican opposition in the November general election[186] and won easily against a minor party candidate, saying as he voted on November 4, "Today was a historic day and a very emotional day [as] I cast my final vote as a candidate on the ballot..."[187] After being strongly opposed to Benjamin Netanyahu's March 3, 2015, speech to Congress (in which, at the invitation of House Republicans, the Israeli Prime Minister spoke in opposition to the Obama administration's efforts to secure a comprehensive agreement on Iran's nuclear program) and saying he would be one of those Democrats not attending, Rangel changed his mind and did attend, attributing his reversal to the advice of friends and constituents and saying, "Enough damage has already been done...

[191] In the June 2016 Democratic primary election to effectively pick his successor, Rangel supported State Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright expressing the hope that an African American would continue to represent the district.

[191][192] Underlining the demographic changes that had been taking place, after winning the general election in November Espaillat became the first non-African American to represent Harlem in the House since a series of Harlem-focused congressional districts were formed beginning in the 1940s.

"[52] Later The New York Times described him thusly: "After three decades in public life, the portly, gravel-voiced Mr. Rangel, who is very much the Old World-style gentleman yet sprinkles his sentences with mild profanity, still takes politics personally.