Baram was elected to the Knesset in 1977 on the Alignment list, an election in which his father lost his seat. Re-elected in 1981, 1984, 1988 and 1992 (by which time the Alignment had become the Labor Party, he was appointed Minister of Tourism in Yitzhak Rabin's government in July 1992. In February 1995 he also became Minister of Internal Affairs, serving until June that year when David Libai was appointed to the post. When Shimon Peres formed a new government following Rabin's assassination, he remained Minister of Tourism.