Thruston Ballard Morton

After naval service in World War II, Morton defeated the 12-year Democratic incumbent, Rep. Emmet O'Neal, in the 1946 election in his native Louisville area (Kentucky's 3rd congressional district), 61,899 votes to 44,599 votes. Having been re-elected in 1948 and 1950, Morton served three terms in the House, from January 3, 1947, to January 3, 1953.

Morton did not seek re-election in 1952. After leaving the House, Morton was appointed as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations[1] in the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, garnering legislators' support for Eisenhower's foreign policy.

In 1956, Morton, by a very narrow margin, defeated the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Earle Clements from Kentucky, a former governor of Kentucky and then-minority whip in the U.S. Senate, by 506,903 votes to 499,922. Morton was re-elected to a second term in the U.S. Senate in 1962, defeating the Democratic lieutenant governor and former mayor of Louisville, Wilson W. Wyatt. Morton served from January 3, 1957, until his resignation, on December 16, 1968.

In the Senate, Morton was considered a moderate. He voted in favor of the Senate amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1957 on August 7, 1957,[2] but did not vote on the House amendment to the bill on August 29, 1957.[3] Morton voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1960,[4] 1964,[5] and 1968,[6] as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,[7] the Voting Rights Act of 1965,[8][9] and the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court.[10] A compromise that Morton proposed to guarantee jury trials in all criminal contempt cases except for voting rights proved, with the assistance of Sens. Everett Dirksen from Illinois and Bourke Hickenlooper from Iowa, crucial in passing that Civil Rights Act.[11]

Morton was the chair of the Republican National Committee from 1959 to 1961 and chaired the Republican National Convention of 1964.

When Morton retired, he surprised many, who considered him at the peak of his political power. However, he opposed the Vietnam War despite being criticized by Rep. William Cowger from Kentucky. Also, he was both depressed by the urban violence after the April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and that of Robert F. Kennedy a few weeks later, and disappointed in his party's failure to address the broader social issues. He also ultimately counseled then-President Lyndon Johnson to decline to seek re-election, and he supported the unsuccessful presidential candidacy of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller of New York.

Morton is interviewed in the 1968 documentary film In the Year of the Pig, and another interview is available through the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library.[12]

Morton was among the last two candidates considered by Richard Nixon as a vice presidential running mate in 1960. As a midwesterner, however, he was considered to have a regional appeal where Nixon already figured to poll strongly and Nixon instead chose Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., of Massachusetts.[13]