Swisher was an active member of the West Virginia Democratic Party. In 1900, he was selected as a candidate for State Superintendent of Free Schools. In the 1902 general election, he ran as the Democratic candidate for the Eleventh District of the West Virginia State Senate. Despite his loss, Swisher received the largest number of Democratic votes ever amassed in Monongalia County up until that time. Swisher was a delegate at the 1936 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, and was selected as an alternate delegate to the Democratic National Conventions of 1912 and 1924.