Backed by Chancellor Ignaz Seipel, he was also active in the Heimwehr paramilitary arm of right-wing political forces, and was appointed chief for Lower Austria in 1928.

During the austrofascist period of 1934–1938 Raab progressed through the ranks of the Corporate State, and was appointed Minister of Commerce by Chancellor Schuschnigg just four weeks before the 1938 Anschluss to Nazi Germany.

He was never involved in the Austrian resistance but kept in touch with the old Christian Democrat elite[3] and supported his fellow Leopold Figl after his release from imprisonment.

In April 1945, Raab was made a member of Karl Renner's provisional government, formed in the Soviet zone of occupation in Austria.

[4] From 1947, he expanded his influence through presidency in the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, the institution tasked with managing social partnership of the government, the political parties, the entrepreneurs and the employees' trade unions.

[3] On the other hand, Raab also held talks with former Austrian Nazi officials like Wilhelm Höttl and Taras Borodajkewycz on their support for ÖVP politics.

In 1957 he and trade union chief Johann Bohm co-founded the Joint Commission on Wages and Prices, the social partnership institution that became a cornerstone of Austrian corporatism.