From 2004 to 2020, she was a member of the
Oberbergischer district council. From 2009 to 2021, she was a member of the
SPD party executive committee. In 2005, 2009 and 2013 she ran for the German Bundestag in the
Oberbergischer Kreis constituency, but was clearly defeated by the CDU candidate
Klaus-Peter Flosbach. In 2013, however, she entered the Bundestag via the SPD state list for North Rhine-Westphalia (list position 18). She was a member of the Committee for Economic Cooperation and Development, sports policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group in the
Sports Committee and a member of the SPD parliamentary group executive committee. At the federal party convention of the SPD in Dresden from 13 to 15 November 2009, she was elected to the federal executive board. She became one of 37 assessors and was assigned the task of "Children, Youth, Sport and Rural Affairs". On 5 December 2011, and December 2013, she was re-elected to the federal executive board in the first ballot, although the number of assessors was reduced to 26. She was an assessor on the federal party executive until December 2021. In 2017 she ran again for the Bundestag in her constituency, but only achieved 26.7% and was thus again clearly defeated by the CDU candidate
Carsten Brodesser. Due to the poor results of her party, she was not able to enter the Bundestag again this time via the state list (list position 20). She left the Bundestag. She also failed to re-enter the Bundestag in the 2021 federal election. == Association activity ==