RightDataUSA


Norris Cotton

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 11, 1900 in Warren, NH
Died: February 24, 1989 in Lebanon, NH

Education:

  • Wesleyan University, 1923

Career:

  • Editor of Granite Monthly
  • Aide to Sen. George Moses
  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • NH House, 1923, 1943, 1945 (Speaker, 1945)
  • Appointed to the U.S. Senate on August 8, 1975 to fill the vacancy caused by the contested 1974 election


Election Results for Norris Cotton


Click on the Year to see the results of that election.

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1946 46 NH R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 9,988 44.3%
1946 46 NH R U.S. House District 02 General 1 45,963 64.9%
1948 48 NH R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 18,799 85.1%
1948 48 NH R U.S. House District 02 General 1 59,505 57.4%
1950 50 NH R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 31,764 90.4%
1950 50 NH R U.S. House District 02 General 1 55,116 64.5%
1952 52 NH R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 31,308 84.5%
1952 52 NH R U.S. House District 02 General 1 79,861 66.4%
1954 54 NH R U.S. Senate Class 3 Special Primary 1 29,761 40.6%
1954 54 NH R U.S. Senate Class 3 Special 1 114,068 60.2%
1956 56 NH R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 61,673 89.5%
1956 56 NH R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 161,424 64.1%
1962 62 NH R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 87,445 94.4%
1962 62 NH R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 134,035 59.7%
1968 68 NH R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 78,058 92.4%
1968 68 NH R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 170,163 59.3%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this election.



Ideology Data for Norris Cotton


Click on the number in the 'Conserv.' column to see all of the key votes for that year.

YearAgeBodyConservative
Coalition		Party UnityPresidential
Support		Vote %LiberalConserv.
P
1947 47 House 84 11 D 93 25
1948 48 House 81 3 D 82 17
1949 49 House 82 15 D 95 15
1950 50 House 84 12 D 95 20
1951 51 House 73 21 D 94 25
1952 52 House 73 25 D 99 23
1953 53 House 76 11 R 90 93 13 0
1954 54 House 57 0 R 39 18 50 14
1954 54 Senate 3 2 R 4 0
1955 55 Senate 85 0 R 81 10 82 10
1956 56 Senate 93 3 R 83 12 97 14
1957 57 Senate 74 11 R 79 14 89 42
1958 58 Senate 83 10 R 72 19 93 17
1959 59 Senate 92 5 87 9 R 83 11 96 0
1960 60 Senate 83 7 80 7 R 63 13 84 18
1961 61 Senate 91 0 91 3 D 26 70 94 0 93
1962 62 Senate 76 0 68 8 D 30 49 79 9 79
1963 63 Senate 84 5 83 6 D 34 52 86 7 86
1964 64 Senate 92 2 74 6 D 28 46 83 6 100
1965 65 Senate 80 10 82 8 D 41 51 92 12 71
1966 66 Senate 94 4 85 5 D 34 61 94 5 96
1967 67 Senate 84 9 72 25 D 47 46 93 23 93
1968 68 Senate 59 19 61 17 D 32 46 75 29 88
1969 69 Senate 90 9 91 9 R 78 18 98 17 79
1970 70 Senate 70 6 68 9 R 73 16 82 0 95
1971 71 Senate 78 4 73 7 R 68 18 79 0 94
1972 72 Senate 93 2 85 6 R 85 7 86 0 83
1973 73 Senate 67 2 64 5 R 58 14 62 6 100
1974 74 Senate 81 8 78 10 R 63 24 83 0* 93
1975 75 Senate 2 1 R 1 1 3 0 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   90%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this row.


Conservative Coalition: According to the publication "Congressional Quarterly" (CQ), this is an alliance of Republicans and Southern Democrats (from back when Southern Democrats tended to be conservative or at least moderate) against Northern Democrats in Congress.

This concept had significant meaning perhaps through the 1980's. These statistics stopped being computed after 2000 because conservative Democrats no longer existed except in very rare cases. The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the coalition; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the coalition. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Party Unity: According to CQ, a Party Unity vote in Congress is one in which the parties were split, with a majority of Democrats opposing a majority of Republicans.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with his party; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the party. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Presidential Support: These are votes for which the President has stated his position, either in via a message to Congress, by press conference remarks or other public statements and documents.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the President; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the President. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast. The "P" column indicates the party of the President in each year.


Vote %: The percentage of roll-call votes in which this Representaive or Senator participated by voting "Yes" or "No" (as opposed to "Present" or not voting at all.)


Liberal Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the ultra-liberal advocacy organization called "Americans for Democratic Action" (ADA). They have been rating members of Congress since 1947. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the liberal position on a key issue. The methodology behind the calculation can be found here. Ratings followed by an asterisk were calculated the "ADA way" due to missing data regarding key votes in the ADA source material.


Conservative Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the conservative advocacy organization called the "American Conservative Union" (ACU). They have been rating members of Congress since 1971. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the conservative position on a key issue.

The liberal and conservative ratings are not expected to add to 100% because the two groups use different sets of key votes to determine their ratings. Conservative ratings from 1961 through 1970 (and for 2024) were calculated based on key votes as selected by the creators of this website.