[2][3] Price quickly became involved in trade union activity, and was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly for Sturt in April 1893,[4][1] becoming Labor leader in 1899.

He contested the single statewide Division of South Australia at the 1901 federal election as the second of two Labor candidates behind Lee Batchelor.

With the support of eight liberals headed by Archibald Peake, Price forced conservative Premier Richard Butler to resign.

The Price Government enacted a number of laws relating to social matters: the suppression of brothels and gaming, the control and care of drunkards, and the consolidation of legislation on the supply of alcohol and local option in liquor licensing.

An island of the Whidby Group off the south-west coast of Eyre Peninsula had been left unnamed after Matthew Flinders' early explorations.

[7] In 2015 a biography of Thomas Price was published and the book launch was attended by South Australian politicians from both sides of politics.

[8] Price married Anne Elizabeth Lloyd (c.1860 – 1 September 1950) on 14 April 1881 at St David's Welsh Church of England in Liverpool.

[2] Anne played an active role in Price's election campaigns[9] She was a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union for many years.