The son of William Douglas (Northern Ireland politician), he attended Strabane Agriculture College before working as a farmer. At the 1997 local elections, Douglas was elected onto Limavady Borough Council for the Benbradagh District.
He was elected to the council as an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) member, but soon resigned in opposition to the Good Friday Agreement.
Douglas was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998 as an independent Unionist representing East Londonderry. With two other anti-agreement Unionists, he formed the United Unionist Coalition. He retained his seat on the council in 2001, but lost his Assembly seat, along with all the other Coalition MLAs, in 2003. In 2005, he was able to top the poll in his seat in Limavady.
Douglas subsequently joined Traditional Unionist Voice, and contested East Londonderry seat for the party at the 2011 Assembly election, in which he came 10th out of the 12 candidates and was not elected to a seat.[1] In reference to his decision to run, Douglas said: "Though public service has been part of my life and upbringing, returning to Stormont has not been a burning ambition. But while I’ve watched the past 4 years of failure and deadlock, with virtually nothing done for East Londonderry, I’ve concluded it requires us all, myself included, to try and make things better."[2]
He was also re-elected onto Limavady Borough Council on the Council election that same day.
Douglas was later elected on the newly-formed Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council at the 2014 local elections, again representing Benbradagh. He was one of three TUV representatives to be elected to the council in that election. At the 2019 local elections, however, Douglas lost his seat to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) candidate.
