Since December 2013, Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter is Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
She is member of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) since 1994 and a few years later, she became chairwoman of the SPD district association Waldshut. Between 2009 and 2014 she was member of the regional association Hochrhein-Bodensee. In 2007 she got the position as member of the state executive committee of the SPD Baden-Württemberg.
She had been member of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2009 and again since October 2010.