She began working as a legislative aide for state senator Frank W. Nolen following his special election win in 1977.[2] In January 1978, Swecker conducted her first visit to the Virginia General Assembly.[2] She worked on the 1978 U.S. senate campaign of Andrew Miller.[2] She moved to Blue Ridge, Virginia in 1978.[1] In 1980, she was a field operations assistant with the United States Census Bureau where she supervised crew leaders and enumerators.[2] The position ended in mid-June.[2] In June 1981, she was elected first vice president of the Blue Ridge Democratic Women's Club.[4] On December 3, 1981, Swecker, a member of the Augusta County Democratic Committee, was elected to serve a two-year term as its chair.[5][6] From 1986 to 1988, she was the executive director of the Democratic Party of Virginia.[7] She served as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee's southern caucus.[8] In 1992, Swecker served as the campaign manager of Steve Musselwhite, a first-time candidate for Virginia's 6th congressional district.[1]
Swecker was chairwoman of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.[10] In 2013, she served on the transition team of Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe.[10] She was a member of the Democratic National Committee.[11] In 2015, she was elected as chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, succeeding Dwight Clinton Jones.[11] In 2022, she was reelected as party chair.[10] During her tenure, the party expanded from four full-time staff and an annual operating budget of under US$1 million to 15 unionized full-time staff members and a budget of over US$3 million.[12] She is a public affairs consultant and the president of Dividing Waters Public Affairs LLC.[13][3]
In 2024 she made news for telling a prominent journalist to commit suicide for reporting the results of a vote for seats on the House Oversight committee |url= https://x.com/DPVAChair/status/1869151754438443264
