Raker was District Attorney of Modoc County from 1895 to 1899, and was an unsuccessful candidate for the California State Senate in 1898.

He served as Judge of the Modoc County Superior Court from January 5, 1903, to December 19, 1910, when he resigned, having been elected to Congress.

[1] In 1911, he tried unsuccessfully to introduce legislation for the creation of the Redwood National and State Parks.

In stark contrast, he was the main sponsor of what came to be known as the Raker Act, passed in 1913 and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914.

The Act authorized the damming of the Tuolumne River and the flooding of the Hetch Hetchy Valley, which remain controversial to this day.