John N. Norton

John Nathaniel Norton (May 12, 1878 – October 5, 1960) was a Nebraska Democratic politician.

Born on a farm near Stromsburg, Nebraska, on May 12, 1878, Norton attended Bryant Normal University in Stromsburg. He graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 1901 and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1903. He served as clerk and recorder of Polk County, Nebraska, from 1906 to 1909, and served as mayor of Osceola, Nebraska, from 1908 to 1909. Norton moved to a farm near Polk, Nebraska and farmed from 1910 to 1922.

He was a member of the Nebraska House of Representatives from 1911 to 1918. During this time he introduced a bill to establish a unicameral legislature; the effort failed at the time, but Norton continued to advocate for the idea for two decades until it was finally enacted.

Norton was a member of the State Constitutional Convention in 1919 and 1920, and became a Chautauqua and Lyceum lecturer in 1922. He was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Nebraska in 1924, as the Democratic incumbent, Charles W. Bryan, was running for Vice President of the United States. Both Norton and Bryan lost, and Norton returned to lecturing, continuing in that line of work until 1927.

In 1926, Norton was elected as a Democrat to the Seventieth Congress (March 4, 1927 – March 3, 1929), unsuccessfully running for reelection in 1928. In 1930, he was elected to the Seventy-second Congress (March 4, 1931 – March 3, 1933). He was defeated for renomination in 1932 by fellow incumbent Ashton C. Shallenberger, when the two were thrown together in redistricting following Nebraska's loss of one U.S. House seat in reapportionment.

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