Woodward served as member of the State house of representatives from 1834 to 1835 from 1840 to 1841.
Woodward was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1853). He declined to be a candidate for reelection in 1852 to the Thirty-third Congress.
He relocated to Alabama and resumed his legal career after leaving Congress.