Quinn entered the Rhode Island Senate in 1923 as one of a trio of young progressive politicians, a group which included Governor William S. Flynn and Lt.

Their agenda of reform included a 48-hour work week and an end to property qualifications for voting in city council elections.

[3][4] Toupin read from "Hamlet" and the Encyclopædia Britannica, in hopes that enough exhausted Republicans would leave the chamber, giving Democrats the majority they needed to pass the measure.

[3] By June 19, Republicans had had enough, and sent a Boston gangster to set off a bromine gas bomb in the Senate chamber.

[citation needed] As the president of the Rhode Island Senate, Quinn was a key actor during the "Bloodless Revolution" on January 1, 1935.

[citation needed] He was nominated for governorship of Rhode Island when incumbent Governor Theodore Francis Green chose to run for a seat in the United States Senate.

[6] Quinn won in the short-term, as Walter O'Hara was removed from his post as president and manager of the Narragansett Racing Association, and Judge James E. Dooley officially took control of the track.

In 1964 he was awarded the first honorary life membership by the Federal Bar Association, and in 1966 he was elected to the Rhode Island Hall of Fame.

They had five children including Norma Marie, Robert Carter, Pauline, Cameron Peter and Penelope Dorr.