His great-grandfather Richard Henry Lee served in the Continental Congress, including as its President, and in the Virginia House of Burgesses as well as the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

[5] Voters in 12th district (composed of Clarke, Frederick, and Warren counties) elected Harrison to the Senate of Virginia in 1887 (a seat previously held by Berryville attorney Marshall McCormick) and re-elected him once, so he served from 1887 to 1895.

Voters from Virginia's 7th congressional district elected Harrison as a Democrat to the Sixty-fourth Congress; he would serve from November 7, 1916, to December 15, 1922.

However, in the Sixty-seventh Congress, he only served from March 4, 1921, until December 15, 1922, when the seat was awarded to Republican Paul, who had contested that election.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress