In 1960, Indianapolis Democratic Mayor Charles Boswell appointed Jones as a director of the Human Rights Commission.

The move of Peoples Temple headquarters to San Francisco in 1975 invigorated Jones' political career. After the Temple served an important role in the mayoral election victory of Democrat George Moscone in 1975, Moscone appointed Jones as the Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission.

Unlike most other figures deemed as cult leaders, Jones was able to gain public support and contact with prominent Democratic local and national United States politicians. For example, Jones and Moscone met privately with Democratic vice presidential candidate Walter Mondale on his campaign plane days before the 1976 election and Mondale publicly praised the Temple. First Lady Rosalynn Carter also personally met with Jones on multiple occasions, corresponded with him about Cuba, and spoke with him at the grand opening of the San Francisco Democratic Party Headquarters where Jones garnered louder applause than Mrs. Carter.

In September 1976, Democrat Willie Brown served as master of ceremonies at a large testimonial dinner for Jones attended by Democrat Governor Jerry Brown and Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally and other Democratic political figures. At that dinner, while introducing Jones, Willie Brown stated "Let me present to you what you should see every day when you look in the mirror in the early morning hours ... Let me present to you a combination of Martin King, Angela Davis, Albert Einstein ... Chairman Mao."

Jim and Marceline Jones adopted several children of at least partial non-Caucasian ancestry; he referred to the clan as his "rainbow family," and stated: "Integration is a more personal thing with me now. It's a question of my son's future."

That comported with Jones' portrayal of the Temple overall as a "rainbow family." The couple adopted three children of Korean-American ancestry: Lew, Suzanne and Stephanie. Jones had been encouraging Temple members to adopt orphans from war ravaged Korea.

Jones had long been critical of the United States' opposition to communist leader Kim Il-Sung's 1950 invasion of South Korea, calling it the "war of liberation" and stating that "the south is a living example of all that socialism in the north has overcome."

In 1954, he and his wife also adopted Agnes Jones, who was partly of Native American descent. Agnes was 11 at the time of her adoption. Suzanne Jones was adopted at the age of six in 1959. In June 1959, the couple had their only biological child, Stephan Gandhi Jones.

Two years later, in 1961, the Joneses became the first white couple in Indiana to adopt a black child, James Warren Jones, Jr. Marceline was once spat upon while she carried Jim Jr.

909 inhabitants of Jonestown, 276 of them children, died of apparent cyanide poisoning.This resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the September 11, 2001 attacks.

On February 19, 1978, Harvey Milk wrote a letter of support for the Peoples Temple to Democratic President Jimmy Carter.

Therein, Milk wrote that Jones was known "as a man of the highest character."