[2] Ana Catarina Veiga Santos Mendonça Mendes was born in Coimbra on 14 January 1973.

She was President of the Setúbal District Federation[3] of the Socialist Party from 2014 to 2015, when she was appointed Deputy Secretary-General.

[4][5][6] Mendes served as a councillor in the Almada municipality from 1993 to 1997 and was elected to the national Assembly of the Republic in 1995 as a representative of the PS for Setúbal, a position she occupied until july, 15h of 2024.

[9] Since early 2018 Mendes has been a regular political commentator on Portuguese television, beginning with Televisão Independente (TVI) and the radio station TSF, then moving to a weekly programme on the SIC Notícias television channel, before moving back to TVI.

[13] On 16 July 2024, she was sworn in as a member of European Parliament, and is a member of Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE), as a substitute in Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET).