[1] He worked various jobs: first with the West and Wheeler Real Estate Company and then with the Seattle National Bank where he was eventually promoted to trust officer in the late 1920s, after joining as a foot messenger.

In 1930, he started working for the Lowman & Hanford Stationery Company, during which time he wrote and published Judgement, and other poems, North-Westward, The Story of Restoration Point and Country Club and Dr. Minor: A Sketch of the Background and Life of Thos.

He was honored as the First Citizen of the Year by the Seattle-King County Association of Realtors on January 24, 1951, for his work at the chamber of commerce.

His district was the largest by population and contained Sand Point Naval Air Station, Fort Lawton and the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, as well as Boeing, the Keyport Torpedo Station, and the Bangor Ammunition Depot.

In 1966, he won re-election with 80.27 percent of the vote and was the first congressional Republican candidate to be endorsed by the King County Central Labor Council.

Pelly introduced a bill to make the U.S. Maritime Administration an independent agency, and supported the July 1965 establishment of the Joint Oceanographic Research Group in Seattle.

Pelly’s goal was to review how foreign aid borrowing was occurring and allow the appropriations committee to authorize the funds.

[10] Pelly reportedly considered running for governor in the 1964 election and in 1966, he was the preferred vice presidential candidate for Richard Nixon amongst state Republicans, although he never ran for any other office.