He was a member of the Moderate Youth League, the youth wing of the Moderate Party, but left the Moderates to join the old Sweden Democratic Youth Association (the youth wing of the Sweden Democrats) in 1995. That same year he also co-founded a local chapter of the Sweden Democratic Youth Association. In 1997, he was elected as a deputy member of the party board. The party’s policies that he claims he was most attracted to at first were its view on the European Union, and its policy on immigration.

In 1998, at the age of 19, Åkesson was elected to public office as a councilman in Sölvesborg Municipality. The same year, he also became deputy chairman of the newly established Sweden Democratic Youth (Sverigedemokratisk Ungdom), and later, from 2000 to 2005, was chairman of the organization. In 2005, he defeated party leader Mikael Jansson in a party election to become the party leader of the Sweden Democrats (SD).

In the 2010 general election, the SD for the first time crossed the election threshold and entered the Riksdag, with 5.70% of the votes, gaining 20 seats. Åkesson, who was placed first on the party’s national ballot, was elected as a Member of the Riksdag (MP) together with 19 of his fellow party members.

In September 2014, Sveriges Radio (SR) reported that Åkesson had spent upwards of 500,000 kronor ($70,000) in 2014 alone on online betting. The sum is more than the politician would have earned all year, after tax, reported SR. The revelation caused an uproar, both among people who view Åkesson as unreliable and those who opposed SR’s decision to publish the information. Among the latter were former Green Party Spokesperson Maria Wetterstrand and Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. Åkesson himself called SR’s actions an attempt at character assassination.

Following the 2014 election, Åkesson announced he would be on sick leave due to burnout. In early 2015, Åkesson was named Sweden’s most important opinion leader for the calendar year 2014 by the Swedish magazine DSM in their annual rankings.

On 27 March 2015, Åkesson publicly announced that he would return to his duties as party leader for the SD, albeit initially in a somewhat reduced role, on the SVT program Skavlan, as well as in an open letter on his Facebook page.

On 9 September 2018, the SD got 17.6% of the votes (+4.7 pp), after the Social Democratic Party (28.4%, -2.6 pp) and the Moderate Party (19.8%, -3.5 pp). SD will have 62 of 349 seats in the next Riksdag.

On 24 April 2020, Erixon announced on her Facebook page that the couple had separated some time previously.