Jones was elected to state Parliament for the seat of Ashgrove at the 2006 general election to succeed Jim Fouras, who had served as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly during the 1990s. After retaining her seat in the 2009 election, she was appointed Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability in the new Bligh cabinet, replacing Andrew McNamara.

Kate Jones is married to Paul Cronin (former chief media adviser to Queensland Premiers Anna Bligh and Peter Beattie, and who now heads media relations at Queensland Rail). They have a son, Thomas Anthony Cronin, who was born in 2010.

Jones stood down from cabinet on 19 June 2011 to focus on defending her seat against newly elected LNP leader Campbell Newman at the 2012 state election.

Jones attended Kelvin Grove State High School in Kelvin Grove. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Journalism at the Queensland University of Technology while working part-time at The Gap Markets, and graduated with a Master of Environmental Law from the Australian National University in 2014.

On 16 February 2015, Jones was sworn in as Minister for Education, Minister for Tourism, Major Events and Small Business and Minister for the Commonwealth Games in the Palaszczuk Ministry, positions she held until 11 December 2017.

On 12 December 2017, she was sworn in as Minister for Innovation and Tourism Development and Minister for the Commonwealth Games.

Jones announced her retirement on 10 September 2020, the last sitting day before the 2020 Queensland state election in October.