George Norris

State: Nebraska

Original Party Affiliation: Republican

Party Affiliation After Switching: Independent

George Norris represented Nebraska in the Senate from March 1913 to January 1943, after serving in the House for 10 years prior. In 1902 Norris was elected to the House as Republican, and after a few years he and other Republicans became known as “insurgents” for opposing Republican Speaker Joe Cannon’s seniority and leadership rules. 

After his election to the Senate as a Republican in 1912, Norris would go on to openly criticize the presidencies of Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. In 1928, he endorsed Hoover’s Democratic rival Al Smith, and would later support all of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidential campaigns. With FDR’s endorsement, as well as that of the Nebraska Democratic Party, Norris ran and won as an independent in 1936. He lost re-election, however, in 1942. Norris is one of the eight senators profiled in John F. Kennedy’s “Profiles in Courage.”