Georgia Lee Lusk was the first woman elected to the United
States Congress from New Mexico. Representative Lusk
entered the 80th Congress (1947–1949) determined to
improve the education system, but as the mother of three
World War II servicemen, one of whom was killed in action,
she also fought for increased benefits for returning war
veterans and supported the foreign policy of the Harry S.
Truman administration.
On May 12, 1893, Georgia Lee Witt was born to George
and Mary Isabel Witt in Carlsbad, New Mexico. In 1914
Georgia Witt graduated from New Mexico State Teacher’s
College after also attending New Mexico Highlands
University and Colorado State Teacher’s College. She
worked as a teacher for a year before marrying Dolph Lusk,
a cattleman, in 1915. Dolph Lusk died in 1919, leaving
Georgia with three young sons: Dolph, Virgil, and Thomas.1
While also running the family ranch, the young widow
resumed her teaching career to support her family. In 1924
Lusk became school superintendent of Lea County, New
Mexico. After an unsuccessful bid in 1928, she was elected
state superintendent of public instruction in 1930, serving
until 1935. A year later, she took on the superintendent
position for rural Guadalupe County, before serving as
New Mexico state superintendent again from 1944 until
1947. During her long tenure in school administration,
Lusk often witnessed discouraging circumstances in
New Mexico classrooms, such as severe book shortages
and schoolroom overcrowding. A shrewd administrator,
she found state funding, even during the Depression, to
improve school conditions. Her eight years of leadership
as state superintendent moved New Mexico from near
the bottom of the nationwide school financing list to the
top.2 After her children were grown, Lusk turned her sights
on improving education on the national level. In 1944 she
served as a delegate to the White House Conference on
Rural Education.
Georgia Lusk’s political zeal led her to seek one of two
At-Large seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, left
open after Congressman Clinton Presba Anderson resigned
his seat when appointed Secretary of Agriculture in 1946. In
the June primary, she led six other candidates, barely beating
popular Lieutenant Governor J. B. Jones by fewer than 300
votes.3 In the general election, she garnered more statewide
votes than the well-seasoned incumbent candidate,
Congressman Antonio M. Fernández, the other At-Large
winner.4 In an election where the Republicans gained 55
seats and took control of the House of Representatives, Lusk,
a staunch Democrat, also bucked a Republican trend when
she took her seat in the 80th Congress in January 1947.5 She
was one of seven women elected to that Congress.
Like any typical freshman, Lusk defended the interests of
her constituents, weighing in on debates concerning copper
mining and national policy on the maintenance of arid land,
both economic concerns for New Mexico voters.6 However,
her background as a teacher and superintendent inspired
Lusk to use her national office to promote educational
measures. She supported the establishment of a Cabinet-level
department of education, remarking that, “If it’s
important for the government to give financial assistance
to transportation, why not to education?”7 In June 1947,
she lent her support to a bill necessitating the foreign
broadcast of pro-American messages via Voice of America
radio programs. Although opponents during the early
Cold War Era were concerned about the reception of such
“propaganda” broadcasts in budding communist regimes,
Lusk argued that this plan was a peaceful form of education
and outreach to other nations. Lusk also backed federal
aid to education, including support for funding hot lunch
programs in schools and defending teachers against salary
cuts proposed by Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York,
the Republican presidential candidate in 1948.8
Georgia Lusk’s support for educational measures was
second only to her concern for veterans’ benefits and civil
defense. Lusk’s three sons served in World War II; Virgil, a
fighter pilot, was killed in action in North Africa.9 Because
of her experience as the mother of veterans, Lusk was
appointed to the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. She took
her role on this committee very seriously, believing that
with the recent end of hostilities, the Veterans’ Affairs
Committee would likely touch more American lives than
any other committee in Congress.10 Lusk introduced
several bills increasing the benefits provided by the 1944
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, popularly known as the GI
Bill of Rights. Her legislation specifically called for a larger
stipend for students under the bill’s jurisdiction, benefits for
widows and dependents of servicemen who were killed or
wounded in battle, and better housing benefits for returning
veterans to accommodate the increased cost of living.11 Lusk
also supported legislation to increase retirement benefits
for servicemen and to provide on-the-job training to
veterans returning to civilian life. Lusk worked closely
with Republican Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers of
Massachusetts to obtain many of these increased benefits.
Despite cooperating with Rogers on veterans’ benefits,
Lusk maintained her Democratic loyalties. She was a
staunch backer of the Truman administration’s foreign
policy proposals, voting in favor of financial and military
aid for governments in Greece and Turkey and endorsing
universal military training (UMT). Lusk saw UMT as an
insurance policy on the country’s future, disagreeing with
critics that training all young men for combat was an act
of aggression. She stressed the educational component of
UMT, claiming that it would teach discipline and fight
provincialism, as it would allow young men to interact with
others from different parts of the country.12 Lusk supported
the majority of the Truman administration’s domestic
programs, most significantly backing the President’s
unpopular opposition to income tax reduction. She turned
away from President Truman, however, when she voted
in favor of the Taft–Hartley Act, a piece of anti-labor
legislation, which passed over the President’s veto.
In the June 1948 Democratic primary, Georgia Lusk
sought renomination for her At-Large seat but fell short in a
three-way election split. Winner and former Governor John
Esten Miles, also an education reformer, went on to win
the general election, serving one term in the 81st Congress
(1949–1951).13 Incumbent colleague, Congressman
Antonio Fernández, won back his seat, to take the other
At-Large bid. Lusk’s loss was by a narrow margin of only
2,451 votes, and rumors of an illegal move by a political
machine-backed candidate led her to weigh demanding
a recount.14 Lusk declined a recount, however, citing the
financial obligation of the process, and later said, “I thought
they’d only say ‘a woman can’t take a lickin.’”15 In September
1949, President Truman appointed her to the War Claims
Commission, where she served with other Democratic
appointees until their dismissal by President Dwight D.
Eisenhower in 1953. Lusk returned to Albuquerque and
continued her crusade for education, serving again as the
state superintendent of public schools. Lusk retired from
public service in 1960. She died on January 5, 1971, in
Albuquerque, New Mexico.16
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
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