Clopton was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1789 to 1791 and was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Fourth and Fifth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1795, to March 3, 1799. He was a member of the Virginia Privy Council from 1799 to 1801, and was elected to the Seventh and to the seven succeeding Congresses; during the Tenth Congress, he was chairman of the Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business.
