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George Norris
He served in the Senate for 30 years, from 1913 until 1943. Fiercely independent, George Norris emerged politically as a western agrarian progressive Republican.
History textbooks usually note four of his legislative accomplishments. They include the Twentieth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which ended the 13-month “Lame-Duck” gap between the election of a new member of Congress and that member’s seating; the 1932 Norris-La Guardia Act, which strengthened organized labor’s collective bargaining hand; the campaign that resulted in Nebraska having the nation’s only unicameral state legislature; and, as his greatest legislative monument, the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Although excluded from this “Famous Seven,” Norris is immortalized among Senator John F. Kennedy’s Courageous Eight in his 1956 book Profiles in Courage. Kennedy admiringly quoted Norris, whose willingness to speak his mind against the prevailing views of his constituents ultimately led to his 1942 defeat in a bid for a sixth term. Said Norris, “I would rather go down to my political grave with a clear conscience than ride in the chariot of victory.”
Kennedy concluded, “Nothing could sway [George Norris] from what he thought was right, from his determination to help all the people, from his hope to save them from the twin tragedies of poverty and war.”