He was admitted to the state bar in 1904 and commenced practice in Munich, North Dakota.

He was the eighth lieutenant governor of North Dakota from 1911 to 1913, state's attorney of Williams County from 1913 to 1915, and served as assistant United States district attorney for North Dakota from 1929 to 1932.

Burdick was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination to the 73rd Congress in 1932, in which he favored Franklin D. Roosevelt to be elected president and the repeal of Prohibition.

Quentin then received the party endorsement in April, and won the election in November.

[6] On August 19, 1960, only eleven days after his son Quentin was sworn into the United States Senate, Burdick died at age 81 in Washington, D.C., and was interred on his ranch at Williston, North Dakota.

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