He served in the Connecticut General Assembly and ran for Congress on the Bull Moose Party ticket.

His father, Joseph III, was a wealthy physician and state senator who was the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut in 1890.

He went on to serve two terms in the Connecticut State Senate (1909 and 1911), chairing the Committee on Roads, Bridges, and Rivers.

[2] Alsop served over three decades on the University of Connecticut's Board of Trustees (1909–1942), when the institution's teaching emphasis was on agriculture.

The Joseph Wright Alsop Hall on UConn's Storrs campus was named in his honor.