A member of the Socialist Party from 1974 to 2022, Bartolone was first elected to the National Assembly, representing the Seine-Saint-Denis department, in 1981.

[2][4] After he was encouraged by a teacher named Marie-Thérèse Thoullieux not to get a professional degree, Bartolone attended the Lycée Turgot in Paris.

[9] Ahead of the party's 2017 primaries, he endorsed Manuel Valls as its candidate for the presidential election later that year.

[10] In April 2013, Bartolone received a menacing letter containing ammunition powder, suggesting he should stop supporting same-sex marriage.

[11][12][13][14] When President François Hollande gave a public speech in 2016 honoring the centennial of François Mitterrand, Bartolone walked out; shortly before, Gérard Davet and François Lhomme from daily Le Monde had quoted Hollande in their book, “A President Shouldn’t Say That”, as saying that Bartolone “doesn’t have the stature to be prime minister” and “is not big on charisma.”[15] Bartolone is married, in a second marriage, with Véronique Ragusa, a parliamentary collaborator.