Cole was elected to the 7th district state senate seat in the
2008 election, beating
Republican Orville B. Smidt. She served on the Commerce Committee, the Health and Human Service Committee and the Taxation Committee. She lost her seat at the
2010 election, being beaten by
Larry Tidemann. In 2016, she moved from
Brookings to
Sioux Falls. after the party leadership had resigned due to the party misstating its finances and finding itself in debt. In September 2020, Cole announced that the party had been "extremely frugal" in its recent spending and was once again financially stable. She resigned in February 2021 for personal reasons. ==Electoral history==