Affiliated with the Republican Party, Bratton was elected a Searcy County judge in 1893. He then served in the Arkansas House of Representatives for two terms, in 1895 and 1897. Bratton was appointed an assistant U. S. attorney by William McKinley in 1987, and held that office until 1907. As a U.S. attorney he prosecuted people violating peonage laws. Bratton turned his attention to the mining industry from 1898 to 1899, working with his family at the Marshall Mining Company. Bratton contested the 1900 United States House of Representatives elections for Arkansas's 5th congressional district, losing to incumbent Hugh A. Dinsmore. Bratton was a delegate to the 1908 Republican National Convention which nominated William Howard Taft as the Republican presidential candidate. Two years later, Taft appointed Bratton postmaster of Little Rock, a position Bratton resigned in 1913, to avoid continuous political attacks.