Pécresse is the daughter of economist Dominique Roux who taught at Université Paris Dauphine and later served as CEO of French conglomerate Bolloré.

In addition to her activities in regional politics, Pécresse served as a member of the National Assembly of France from 2002 until 2007, representing the Yvelines department (2nd constituency).

During her time in office, she launched many reforms to give universities a greater degree of autonomy over their resources and open the way for more private sector financing.

[9] From 2011 until 2012, Pécresse served as the government's spokeswoman and as Minister of Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform in Fillon's third cabinet, succeeding François Baroin.

[13] After the defeat of Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 French presidential election, Pécresse remained a key member of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and its successor, the Republicans (LR).

[16][17] In response to the Brexit vote in 2016, Pécresse helped launch an initiative of corporate leaders and politicians – including Anne Hidalgo, Gérard Mestrallet and Christian Noyer – to attract business from London.

She also publicly opposed newly elected LR chairman Laurent Wauquiez, warning against his possible "porosity" to the far-right National Front's (FN) ideas.

"[26] At the party's congress in November 2021, she came in second after Éric Ciotti in an internal vote; for the runoff election, she was endorsed by the other defeated candidates Michel Barnier, Xavier Bertrand and Philippe Juvin.

[30] After winning the nomination, Pécresse's polling numbers soared above those of far-right candidates Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour, though trailing incumbent Emmanuel Macron in the first round.

[48] In a 2016 op-ed published by Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, Pécresse joined sixteen other high-profile women from across the political spectrum – including Élisabeth Guigou, Christine Lagarde, and Fleur Pellerin – in making a public vow to expose "all sexist remarks, inappropriate gestures and behaviour.

in 2017, Pécresse told Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche she would seek to position her grouping between those who had joined Macron's government – including Prime Minister Édouard Philippe – and those who would follow a line she called "aggressive opposition," and which has gathered around the party's right wing.

In particular, she suggests the introduction of maximum annual immigration ceilings and stricter conditions for the issuance of a residence permit, such as having "sufficient resources" (the amount of which would be raised by 25%), "mastery of the French language" and "respect for secularism and the values of the Republic".

[54] Following the murder of Samuel Paty in 2020, Pécresse argued for lifting restrictions on facial recognition and using artificial intelligence to fight terrorism on public transport networks.

[56] In the run-up to the 2022 presidential election, she promised to cut public spending and taxes through four major reforms: eliminating 150,000 civil service jobs, moving to retirement at age 65, reducing unemployment benefits and withdrawing the state from competitive companies in which it is a minority shareholder.