Donovan started on Vulcan County council at the age of 19. During his 16 years on council he was reeve for two years, chair of public works, agriculture service board, and was on the planning commission. Other boards he was involved with was Blackie and district seed cleaning co-op, Community Futures Highwood, South grow, Vulcan business Development board, Northwest Fire protection association, and the Mossleigh Lions Club. Donovan ran for and won Little Bow in the
Legislative Assembly of Alberta during the
2012 Alberta general election, defeating three other candidates with over half the popular vote. He was only the sixth person to hold the riding since its creation in 1913. Premier
Alison Redford credited Donovan persuading her to allow the
Canadian Taxpayers Federation into the pre-budget release lockup, where journalists and stakeholders receive embargoed copies of the budget prior to being released to the public, after he sent the Premier a hand written note in the legislative assembly. Wildrose had previously offered to bring the CTF on a $1 day long contract to the lockup before Redford's decision to allow the group to attend. On November 24, 2014, Donovan left the Wildrose Party and "crossed the floor" of the Alberta Legislature to join the governing Alberta Progressive Conservative Party caucus due to Donovan claiming that he was impressed with Jim Prentice's leadership and that he could do better for his constituents. A few short weeks later, under the direction of Danielle Smith, asked all of the Wildrose party legislature members to dissolve and join the Progressive Conservative party... The move was interpreted by the media in the context of the recent election of Jim Prentice as Alberta PC leader, the loss by Wildrose of four recent byelections, recent floor crossings by Donovan and Kerry Towle, and controversy over the handling of an equality rights resolution at the Wildrose Party's recent convention. On February 8, 2015, Donovan was acclaimed the candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party for the constituency of Little Bow in the next provincial election when no one else offered to challenge him for the nomination. He lost the general election to
Dave Schneider of Wildrose by 12 votes. In the 2019 election, after Wildrose and the Progressive Conservatives merger, Donovan ran as an
independent, and came in a weak third behind the
United Conservative and
New Democratic candidates, with 4.5% of the vote. ==Electoral record==