A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana's 1st congressional district for a partial term in 1977.

He practiced law in the New Orleans area for almost a decade before being elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in the first-ever nonpartisan blanket primary held at the state level in the fall of 1975.

[1] Tonry was investigated by U.S. Attorney Gerald J. Gallinghouse [2] on charges of allowing subordinates to steal votes by stuffing ballot boxes in St. Bernard Parish, a suburb of New Orleans.

Tonry ran in the Democratic primary for that race, but lost to one of his former colleagues in the state legislature, Ron Faucheux, who was defeated by Livingston in the special election.

In 1983, Tonry tried to return to the Louisiana House in District 103, but finished in fourth (dead last) in the nonpartisan blanket primary with 2,693 votes (17.8 percent).