Borland served as member of the board of freeholders directed to draft a charter for Kansas City in 1898.

[1][2] Borland was elected as a Democrat to the sixty-first and four succeeding Congresses, and served from March 4, 1909 until his death.

[3] Borland also introduced the Calder–Borland Bill (later called the Standard Time Act) with William M. Calder.

[2] He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1918 to the Sixty-sixth Congress, losing the Democratic primary to William T.

[2] Borland died of pneumonia near Koblenz, Germany, while on a Masonic mission abroad, on February 20, 1919.