From statehood in 1912 to 1969, New Mexico did not use congressional districts for its representatives to the United States House of Representatives. Instead, it elected its representatives statewide at-large.

Republicans held onto the seat in 1920 by nominating Néstor Montoya, the county clerk of Bernalillo County and former Speaker of the New Mexico Territorial Legislature. Montoya won with a combination of Hispanic voters and coat-tails from the election of President Warren Harding. Republicans did not renominate him in 1922, choosing instead suffragist Adelina Otero-Warren, the niece of former territorial Governor, Miguel Otero, and the first woman to run for statewide office in New Mexico. Otero-Warren was defeated by Democrat John Morrow, an educator and lawyer from northeast New Mexico. Morrow would win consecutive re-elections in 1924 and 1926, but lost re-election in 1928 to Albert G. Simms, an Albuquerque businessman, on the coat-tails of the election of President Herbert Hoover.