Georgia Lee Lusk

Georgia Lee Witt Lusk (May 12, 1893 – January 5, 1971) was the first female U.S. Congressional representative from New Mexico, an educator, and a devoted public servant.

After graduation from Carlsbad High School in 1912 she attended Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and Colorado State Teachers College at Greeley.

When her husband died in 1919, Georgia Lusk was pregnant and already had two sons, but she overcame these obstacles as a widow and became manager of the family ranch while continuing to teach and raise her children.

The first female member of the New Mexico House of Representatives was elected, famed suffragist Adelina Otero-Warren shocked the state by winning the Republican nomination to run - unsuccessfully - for New Mexico's 1st Congressional District, and Georgia Lusk took her first steps into politics, being elected as superintendent of Lea County.

As a member of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Lusk supported many of President Harry S. Truman's administration's domestic programs (although she voted to override President Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act) and was a staunch backer of the administration's foreign policy proposals, voting for assistance to Greece and Turkey and endorsing universal military training.