He was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice at Waverly, Tennessee, in Humphreys County.

The chairman of the Democratic committee of Humphreys County for fifteen years, Turner was also a member of the Tennessee Senate in 1900, 1901, and from 1909 to 1912.

Elected as a Democrat to Sixty-seventh Congress by the Tennessee's 7th congressional district to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Lemuel P. Padgett,[1] Turner served from November 7, 1922, to March 3, 1923.

Turner returned to Waverly, Tennessee and engaged in banking and agricultural pursuits.

[3] After his death in Washington, D.C., on March 23, 1939, Turner's remains were transported and he is interred in Marable Cemetery in Waverly, Tennessee.