Hopgood represented the House of Assembly seats of Mawson from 1970 to 1977 and Baudin from 1977 to 1993 for the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party, and was promoted to the Labor frontbench in 1973.
He was still studying for his PhD when he was elected to state parliament, so converted the final year to part-time.
[9] His thesis was on history, which was within the School of Social Science at Flinders, titled "A Psephological Examination of the South Australian Labor Party from World War I to the Depression".
[10] Hopgood represented the House of Assembly seats of Mawson from 1970 to 1977 and Baudin from 1977 to 1993 for the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party, and was promoted to the Labor frontbench in 1973.
His wife moved to Adelaide with him and also taught at Westminster School.