[4] By December 2009 Keneally had emerged as the preferred leadership candidate of the Labor Right faction, and defeated incumbent Premier Nathan Rees (who had been in office for just 15 months) in a party room ballot, winning by 47 votes to 21.

[11][12] At the 2022 federal election Keneally, whose main residency is in the Northern Beaches, was parachuted into the traditionally safe Labor seat of Fowler, which has one of the highest concentrations of Vietnamese Australians in the country.

As a result of community backlash against her candidacy, Labor suffered a 15.6% swing against them, and she was defeated by independent challenger Dai Le, a Vietnamese-Australian journalist and former Liberal Party candidate.

She lived briefly in Colorado but grew up in Toledo, Ohio,[13] where she attended high school at Notre Dame Academy.

[16][17] She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1991,[14][18][19] was a registered Democrat[20] and worked as an intern for the Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, Paul Leonard.

[4][26][27] Keneally was elected to the seat of Heffron in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 2003,[1] following a bitter pre-election battle with Deirdre Grusovin, the sister of senior Labor politician Laurie Brereton.

[30] As NSW Planning Minister from August 2008, Keneally's department oversaw the local traffic diversions, and strict environmental management during construction, around the desalination pipeline works between Erskineville and Kurnell, approved by the department under the desalination pipeline project approval, granted by Frank Sartor, in November 2007.

[32] On 3 December, Keneally narrowly defeated Sartor by two votes to become the Right's candidate in a leadership spill against Rees.

[33] On 4 December 2009 Keneally was sworn in as the 42nd (and first female) premier of New South Wales by the State Governor, Marie Bashir.

Despite her dedication to the project she was criticised for a perceived conflict of interest in the development of Barangaroo worth over one million dollars and linked to installation of electric car infrastructure associated with the development[36][37] and additionally for giving exemption to Barangaroo from environmental planning laws.

[35] In the eve of her time as premier, during investigations into corrupt dealings by former minister Ian Macdonald, Keneally refused to release a report made about him relating to misuse of taxpayer funds, though she was compelled to release the report to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

She was seeking to lead Labor to a fifth consecutive term in government, and also to become the second woman elected as a state premier in her own right, after Anna Bligh in Queensland.

Keneally resigned as Premier and state Labor leader on election night and announced she would return to the backbench.

[60] Despite picking up a five percent two-party swing, she lost to the previous incumbent and Liberal candidate John Alexander.

[66] After the 2019 federal election, new leader Anthony Albanese expressed his intention to bring Keneally onto the frontbench despite opposition from the NSW Right faction.

[69] In September 2021 it was reported that Keneally would seek preselection for the Division of Fowler in the House of Representatives to succeed retiring MP Chris Hayes at the 2022 federal election.

Le was his preferred candidate due to her ability to reflect the multiculturalism of the area and her strong links to the community.

[71] Though Keneally moved to the seat after winning preselection, she did not have roots within the electorate and previously resided on Scotland Island in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney.

[72][73][74] The push for a white American-born woman with limited connections to a safe Labor seat primarily made up of people of Asian or Middle Eastern background, including a large proportion of recent migrants and refugees, was criticised by Labor MPs such as Anne Aly and Peter Khalil.

Others, including former prime minister Paul Keating, supported Keneally, who was installed by party leadership without a pre-selection ballot.

[75][76][77] Independent Dai Le, a Vietnamese refugee and former Liberal Party councillor and candidate, nominated for the seat, and defeated Keneally in one of only two Labor losses at the 2022 federal election.

Keneally joined Peter van Onselen as co-host of Sky News daytime program To The Point on 1 June 2015 which airs during PVO NewsDay.

[90] Keneally regularly contributed to The Guardian Australia on a range of politico-social issues such as religion in politics, same-sex marriage, and asylum-seeking between December 2014 and June 2019.

[96] Keneally and her family moved to Liverpool prior to contesting the local seat of Fowler at the 2022 federal election.