Mount had been approached several times to run for public office by the Republican Party, to which he belonged, but had always refused. In 1888 he was nominated to run for the Indiana State Senate, despite his protests. The party at that time was losing farming votes to the Populist Party, and bringing farmers to the ticket was seen as a way to reverse the trend. He reluctantly accepted the nomination expecting to lose, but won the election in an ordinarily Democratic-controlled district. In the Democratic-controlled Senate he submitted no legislation of his own, but did support several measures he believed would benefit the farming community, including increasing funding for state agricultural programs.
