Kelly, Sue W. (Sue Weisenbarger), 1936-

Sue Weisenbarger Kelly (born September 26, 1936) is an American businesswoman and politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2007, representing New York's 19th District.

Born in Lima, Ohio, she graduated from Lima’s Central High School in 1954 and earned a BA in botany and bacteriology from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, four years later. In 1960 she married Ed Kelly, settled in suburban New York, and raised four children. Sue Kelly earned an MA in health advocacy from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, in 1985. She first participated in electoral politics by fundraising and campaigning for several Republican candidates. In 1972 she briefly worked for Representative Hamilton Fish Jr. of New York, who represented the southern Hudson Valley, where Kelly lived.

When Fish decided not to seek re-election in 1994, Kelly sought and won the nomination for the congressional seat. Kelly defeated Fish's son, Hamilton Fish V, who ran as a Democrat, and Conservative Party candidate Joseph DioGuardi, who had been defeated by her in the Republican primary but continued campaigning. She was re-elected by a seven-point margin in 1996 and had comfortable victory margins in her campaigns thereafter. In 2004, Kelly easily won re-election with 67% of the vote in New York's 19th Congressional district although The New York Times described Kelly's opponents in previous races as "token opposition".

Kelly highlighted a socially moderate and fiscally conservative voting record. A 2007 survey of congressional power and effectiveness by the nonpartisan company, Knowlegis, indicated that Rep. Kelly was among the 100 most powerful lawmakers in the 435-member House. The survey also labelled Kelly as the second most powerful congressperson in the New York delegation, second only to Thomas M. Reynolds, who was chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. She was a member of The Republican Majority For Choice, Republicans for Choice, The Wish List, The Republican Main Street Partnership, and Republicans for Environmental Protection.

In the fall of 2006, seeking re-election to her seventh term, Kelly faced a difficult challenge from Democrat John Hall. Hall, an activist and a founding member of the 1970s band Orleans, campaigned on his opposition to the war in Iraq and sought to link Kelly to major ethics violations in the Republican-controlled Congress and the rising federal deficit. Despite Kelly’s popularity within the district, Republicans everywhere ran against a head wind as voters soured on the George W. Bush administration. In a midterm cycle that saw Democrats capture the House majority for the first time in 12 years, Kelly lost to Hall by a margin of two percent.