[1] Kutschaty has been a member of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2005 and the parliamentary leader of the SPD since 2018.

He left government after the Hannelore Kraft and the SPD lost the 2017 state election against Armin Laschet and the Christian Democrats.

Kutschaty was nominated by his party as delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2022.

[4] Kutschaty was the lead candidate for the Social Democrats in the 2022 North Rhine-Westfalia state election but lost out against incumbent Minister-President Hendrik Wüst.

[5] Since January 2023, Kutschaty has been serving on an internal SPD commission on tax reform, co-chaired by Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil.