Norris Cotton (1900-1989), a New Hampshire Republican, first came to the Senate as a young clerk for Senator George H. Moses. He then served as a member of the New Hampshire State house of representatives before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1946. After three terms in the House, he was elected in 1954 to fill a vacancy in the Senate, and won three subsequent reelections before retiring in 1974. Later that year, Cotton briefly returned to his Senate seat to fill a vacancy caused by a disputed election. Cotton served as both secretary and chairman of the Republican Conference, and was a powerful member of the Appropriations and Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committees. He introduced a resolution in 1974 to assign the Daniel Webster Desk to the senior senator from New Hampshire—a tradition still followed today.
