[1] Campbell's family were supporters of the 2nd Duke of Argyll, who arranged his unopposed return at the 1722 British general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Buteshire.
[1] The seat, whose patron was the county's hereditary sheriff the Earl of Bute,[2] was an alternating constituency with Caithness.
Buteshire was not represented in the following Parliament, and Campbell filled a vacancy in the Elgin Burghs at a by election on 16 March 1728.
[3] By 1727, the 3rd Earl of Kintore was keen to regain some of the privileges which had been stripped from his father after the latter's support for the 1715 Jacobite rising, and sought to win favour with the Duke of Argyll.
He therefore supported Argyll's preferred candidate William Steuart, who was returned unopposed at the 1727 British general election.