Until his election loss, he was the dean of Ohio's GOP delegation to the House of Representatives, after the retirement of former Speaker John Boehner.

[2] He graduated from La Salle High School in Cincinnati in 1971, and then from the College of William and Mary in 1975, earning a Bachelor of Arts in physical education.

He went on to obtain a Juris Doctor degree from Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College of Law in 1978.

In 1994, Chabot ran for the U.S. House again and defeated Democratic incumbent David S. Mann of Ohio's 1st congressional district, 56%–44%.

[8] In the series of debates during that campaign, Qualls criticized Chabot for not funneling enough federal spending to his home district.

[14] In a rematch, Chabot defeated Driehaus,[15][16] Libertarian Jim Berns, and Green Party nominee Richard Stevenson.

[20] He was helped by the 2010 round of redistricting, which shifted the majority of heavily Republican Warren County to the 1st Congressional District.

In the general election, he lost in an upset to Democratic nominee Greg Landsman, a member of the Cincinnati City Council.

On January 7, 2021, Chabot objected to the certification of the 2020 US presidential election results in Congress based on false claims of voter fraud.

[31] In August 2021, Business Insider reported that Chabot had violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012, a federal transparency and conflict-of-interest law, by failing to properly disclose an exchange of stock in Allergan plc and AbbVie Inc. worth up to $30,000.

[40][non-primary source needed] Chabot favors repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

[41] He supported the March 2017 version of the American Health Care Act, the GOP's replacement for Obamacare.

[50] In 2002, Chabot advocated teaching intelligent design alongside the theory of evolution by natural selection in Ohio high schools.

[51] Chabot has called for ending logging subsidies in the Tongass National Forest,[52] and promoted relations with Taiwan.