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Rep. Eleanor Norton

Representative for the District of Columbia’s At-Large District

pronounced EL-uh-ner // NAWR-tun

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Norton is the representative from the District of Columbia and is a Democrat. She has served since Jan 3, 1991. Norton is next up for reelection in 2020 and serves until Jan 3, 2021.

Because the District of Columbia is a territory of the United States, and not a state, its representative in the House of Representatives is a delegate with limited voting privileges — Norton can currently vote in committee and in certain votes on the House floor, but not if their vote would be decisive. Delegates have a marginalized role in Congress and their constituents are not represented in Congress in the same manner as most citizens.

Voting Information

Make sure you are registered to vote and that you vote by mail, early, or know your polling location — see vote.org for help.

Photo of Rep. Eleanor Norton [D-DC0]

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2019 Report Card for Norton.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Norton is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Norton has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Oct 27, 2020. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

NIAC Action: A The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: A NumbersUSA: 12% Americans for Prosperity: 0%

Committee Membership

Eleanor Norton sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Norton was the primary sponsor of 38 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 38 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Norton sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (45%) Crime and Law Enforcement (13%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (9%) Arts, Culture, Religion (8%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (7%) Armed Forces and National Security (6%) Law (6%) Health (6%)

Recent Bills

Some of Norton’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Feb 1993 to Mar 2020, Norton missed 131 of 1,532 roll call votes, which is 8.6%. This is much worse than the median of 2.3% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: