After a successful career as an industrialist in Le Havre, Faure was elected its deputy mayor. In 1881 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies from the Seine-Inférieure (modern Seine-Maritime) département. He took a seat with the republican followers of Léon Gambetta.

After terms as minister of colonies (1883–85) and two as minister of marine (to 1895), Faure became president of France. His victory was unexpected; it came as a rebuff to the political left and its candidate, Henri Brisson. As president he approved the French conquest of Madagascar and exchanged visits with Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in 1896 and 1897. The Fashoda conflict, an unsuccessful confrontation with Great Britain in the Sudan (1898), helped to undermine Faure's popularity, but the real dominating issue during his presidency was the Dreyfus Affair. Faure was opposed to reopening the case of Alfred Dreyfus, an army captain falsely accused of treason, and Faure's position encouraged agitation from both the left and the right. He died suddenly, and his funeral was the scene of a confrontation between pro- and anti-Dreyfus groups.