She was active in state and national politics, serving as vice-president of the Woman's Republican Club of Ohio and directing publicity for Warren G. Harding's presidential campaign.

[6] While working in the office of a brother who was then secretary of the Ohio Prohibition Party, Hopley conceived the idea that a woman should be better qualified to report certain events for newspapers than a man.

[6] In the fall of that year she was appointed by Commissioner M. B. Ratchford, State Bureau of Labor Statistics, as special inspector of workshops and factories with a view to bettering the condition of women and children.

[6][11] In 1918, she was appointed by E. M. Fullington, chairman of the Ohio Republican Advisory Committee to supervise the work of the women and publicity in the campaign for governor and for nationwide prohibition.

In 1919 she was appointed by the Franklin County, Ohio Republican committee to conduct the women's campaign and publicity in the municipal election.

Haynes told Congress that Hopley was employed not as an enforcement agent but to give information as part of "wise propaganda work".

[Women] resort to all sorts of tricks, concealing metal containers in their clothing, in false bottoms of trunks and traveling bags, and even in baby buggies.

In 1925, General Lincoln C. Andrews, the new Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in charge of Prohibition enforcement, demanded Hopley resign as part of his reorganization of the Bureau.

[18] Despite support from Haynes and prominent Ohio politicians, Hopley resigned from the Bureau in July 1925, when it was determined her activities were outside the scope of the federal government,[19] and publicity expenditures of around $50,000 drew criticism.