He retired from the House in 1910 to seek election to the U.S. Senate but narrowly lost the Republican nomination to Governor Edward C. Stokes in the state's first direct primary election. He lost a second match with Stokes by a much wider margin in the 1913 gubernatorial primary.
Fowler was a member of the Republican State Committee from 1898 to 1907.[citation needed]
Congress
Fowler was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth and to the seven succeeding Congresses, serving in office from March 4, 1895, to March 3, 1911. He was chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency (Fifty-seventh through Sixtieth Congresses). He was an unsuccessful candidate for nomination for election to the United States Senate in 1910.
Later life
After leaving Congress, he resumed banking activities at Elizabeth. He also engaged in literary pursuits and operated a group of marble quarries in Vermont. In 1930, he moved to Orange, New Jersey, where he died on May 27, 1932.[1] He was interred in Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey.