In December 2015, Cancela Rodríguez was elected deputy for La Coruña in Congress, being reelected in 2016.

[4] In June 2017, Cancela Rodríguez was elected secretary of the area of Migration Policies and PSOE del Exterior in the executive of Pedro Sánchez.

[5] In her work in Congress, Cancela Rodríguez chaired the Subcommittee created within the Equality Commission for the elaboration of the State Pact on Gender Violence, approved on September 28, 2017, in the Plenary.

[6] In July 2021, she left the presidency of the Equality Commission, being replaced on September 30, 2021, by Carmen Calvo.

In 2023, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Cancela Rodríguez to co-chair his Advisory Group on Local and Regional Governments, alongside Fatimatou Abdel Malick.