[1] Nolan was the fourth woman elected to Congress, after Jeannette Rankin, Alice Mary Robertson, and Winnifred Sprague Mason Huck.

[2]: 34 [2]: 5 Nolan was the first woman elected to her husband's seat in Congress, which is sometimes known as the "widow's succession".

[2]: 34 [5] Nolan supported her late husband's agenda on minimum wage, child labor laws, and education.

Her primary concerns were improving wages and lowering taxes on workers while raising them for wealthy Americans, She also supported a bonus for World War I veterans.

She was not a candidate for renomination in 1924 to the 69th Congress, saying that "Politics is entirely too masculine to have any attraction for feminine responsibilities".