[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.

[2]: 58 In her later years, Nolan moved to Sacramento, California, where she died on July 9, 1973 at age 86.