Thruston Ballard Morton

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Thruston Ballard Morton (1907 – 1982), a Republican, represented Kentucky in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.

Morton won his seat in the House by defeating incumbent Democrat Emmet O'Neal in 1946, 61,899 votes to 44,599. He served three terms in the House, January 3, 1947, to January 3, 1953.

After leaving the House, Morton served in an appointed position in the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In 1956 Morton, by a very narrow margin, defeated incumbent Democratic United States Senator Earle C. Clements, 506,903 votes to 499,922. Morton won re-election to a second term in the Senate in 1962, defeating Democratic lieutenant governor and former mayor of Louisville Wilson W. Wyatt. Morton served in the Senate from January 3, 1957, until his resignation on December 16, 1968. He vacated the seat a few weeks early to allow his Republican successor, Marlow William Cook, another "moderate" Republican, to gain an edge in seniority.

Morton was the chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1959 until 1961. In the Senate, Morton was considered a "moderate" Republican and voted, along with his Republican colleague, John Sherman Cooper for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Thruston Morton was the brother of Rogers Clark Ballard Morton, who represented Maryland in the United States House of Representatives from 1963 through 1971, when he became Secretary of the Interior in the administration of Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford and Secretary of Commerce under Ford before heading Ford's re-election campaign in 1976.

Morton is interviewed in the 1968 documentary film In the Year of the Pig.