Biography
Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández represents the beautiful and beautifully diverse 3rd Congressional District of New Mexico.
Teresa is a daughter of rural New Mexico and 17th generation New Mexican. Born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, she was part of the state’s first Head Start class. She went on to graduate from Yale and Stanford Law School.
After law school, Teresa worked as an attorney and advocate and won important legal battles to advance voting rights, promote tribal sovereignty, and protect our environment and acequia waters. She also served as an acequia commissioner.
As a public interest lawyer, she helped secure nearly a billion dollars for and then helped build schools, rural health clinics, broadband, businesses, affordable housing, and critical infrastructure for New Mexico. She was also a Clinton and Obama presidential appointee and worked as a White House Fellow on housing issues and as Vice Chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.
In Congress, Teresa serves on the House Rules Committee as Ranking Member of its Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process. Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries placed his trust in the congresswoman to represent Democrats in this powerful committee. She also serves on the House Committee on Natural Resources as the Ranking Member of its Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs. As Ranking Member, her focus is to promote tribal sovereignty and improve life for all Native Americans. When Leger Fernández was chair of the subcommittee, the 117th Congress made the largest investments in Indian Country in generations and passed the Congresswoman’s STOP Act to protect sacred items from being illegally trafficked.
Congresswoman Leger Fernández also serves on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. As a member of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, she wants to make sure the paths to higher education and workforce development are available for all Americans.
For her advocacy and work for women’s rights, Teresa’s colleagues elected her Chair of the Congressional Democratic Women’s Caucus in 2024. Teresa also serves as a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Teresa is the Co-Chair of the National Labs Caucus and the Rural Broadband Caucus. She is also a proud member of the following: Congressional Progressive Caucus, Diabetes Caucus, Labor Caucus, LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, Mental Health Caucus, National Heritage Area Caucus, Native American Caucus, PFAS Caucus, Pro-Choice Caucus, Rural Caucus, Ski Caucus, and the Assisting Caregivers Today (ACT) Caucus.
When the U.S. Forest Service started the biggest fire in New Mexico’s history in April of 2022, people lost their homes, their ranches, and their livelihoods. Teresa knew the USFS must be held accountable and secured a pause on prescribed burns. She helped pass the Hermit's Peak Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act securing $3.95 billion to create an entirely new program to compensate victims of the fire and pay for the replacement of the damaged Las Vegas water treatment facility so that residents could have access to clean water.
Teresa believes everyone needs access to health care no matter their income, insurance, or zip code. Quality and affordable health care is essential for our communities to thrive. As a breast cancer survivor, she understands how important it is to protect individuals with pre-existing conditions. As someone who lost two brothers to addiction, she wants to make sure no family experiences the same pain that her family did. In Congress, she introduced the Campus Prevention and Recovery Services for Students Act to address alcohol and substance use on college campuses. She also introduced the Home of Your Own Act to create a national homeownership assistance grant program to help address the current housing crisis and bring down the cost of homeownership.
