He has been a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since November 2018, initially representing the seat of Burwood in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

[4] Fowles joined the Australian Labor Party in 1999 at the age of 21 and became involved in local branches in Hawthorn, Richmond and Burwood.

In 2002 Fowles stood as a candidate in the East Yarra by-election gaining an 8.8% swing to Labor, but failing narrowly to defeat Liberal MP Richard Dalla-Riva.

At the 2018 Victorian state election, Fowles stood as the Labor candidate for the seat of Burwood, in Melbourne's east, challenging incumbent Liberal MP Graham Watt.

[9][10][11] He also secured in excess of $5m in funding to upgrade Wattle Park and has advocated for the Suburban Rail Loop, for which a station is planned in Burwood.

[13][14][15] On 25 July 2019, Fowles was questioned by ACT Police in Canberra following an incident in which he had kicked in the door of a hotel room at the Abode Apartments in Kingston.

[16] Fowles was not charged with any offence and apologised for his actions, saying that he had been suffering from addiction and other mental health issues and had been attempting to retrieve medication from his luggage which was locked in the room.

This abolition resulted in Fowles standing for Ringwood electorate at the 2022 Victorian State Election, following the decision of incumbent Dustin Halse MP not to recontest.

[20] On 5 August 2023, Fowles resigned from the parliamentary Labor Party at the request of then-Premier Daniel Andrews following allegations of sexual assault of a government employee.

[5] In his inaugural speech to Parliament following his election, Fowles spoke about the importance of addressing economic inequality and called for greater fairness in society.