Career
She became deputy mayor and councillor of the Urban Community of Brest. In 1998, she was elected General Counsel of the Canton of Brest-Saint-Marc when the General Council of Finistère swung to the left for the first time. Again, alongside Pierre Maille, President of the General Council, she became elected Vice-President of this Assembly.
She was first elected Member of Parliament on 16 June 2002, in the 2nd constituency of Finistère.
She then stood down from municipal office to devote herself to this new national mandate, and that of Vice-President of the General Council. In 2004 she was re-elected to the General Council of Finistère and retained her post as its vice-president
In September 2006, Patricia Adam officially endorsed Dominique Strauss-Kahn to be the Socialist Party candidate for the 2007 presidential elections. She was re-elected Member of Parliament on 17 June 2007, in the second round, with 55.51% of the vote.
In May 2008, she supported the candidacy of Bertrand Delanoë to the post of First secretary of the Socialist Party.