Weis, Jessica, 1901-1963

Jessica "Judy" McCullough Weis (July 8, 1901 – May 1, 1963) was a two-term Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Rochester, New York.

Born in Chicago, she as educated at the Franklin School in Buffalo, at Miss Wright's School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and at Madame Rieffel's French School in New York City. In 1921 she married Charles William Weis Jr. of Rochester, New York. Judy Weis joined the Rochester Junior League and participated in other local charities, often joking that a “deep-seated hatred of housework” drove her to politics. She became active in the New York Republican Party during the 1930s when she “got upset about those who worried about the New Deal and didn’t do anything about it." In 1936, she organized statewide road caravans to support Kansas Governor Alf Landon's unsuccessful bid for the White House. She held various posts in the local, state, and national Republican Party. Weis was vice chairman of the Monroe County Republican Committee from 1937 until 1952 and a member of the Republican National Committee from 1944 until 1963.

Weis served as the first vice president of the newly founded National Federation of Republican Women and served as its president in 1941. She was a delegate at large to the 1940, 1944, 1948, 1952 and 1956 Republican National Conventions. In 1948 Weis seconded the nomination of Thomas E. Dewey for president, the first woman to do so. She went on to work as associate campaign manager for the Republican Party in the 1948 election. In 1952 Weis was a member of the caucus that helped Dwight D. Eisenhower select a running mate, an experience she described in an essay she contributed to the book, Politics USA. In 1953, President Eisenhower appointed her to the National Defence Advisory Council, she was re-appointed to this post until her resignation in 1958. She was also an appointee to the Inter-American Commission of Women. In 1956, she was the planning chair of the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.

When Kenneth Keating vacated his house seat to run for the US Senate, Weis was elected to Congress from New York's the 38th District. She was reelected in 1960, and served from January 3, 1959 until January 3, 1963. She served on the Committees on Governmental Operations, District of Columbia, and the newly formed Committee on Science and Astronautics. In 1961 Weis supported the Equal Rights Amendment and the Equal Pay Act. She declined to run for a third term after being diagnosed with cancer. She died in Rochester four months after leaving office. Her papers are housed at Harvard University's Schlesinger Library.