HISTORY
How Gamblers Abolished the Nebraska House of Representatives
86 years ago, a strange accident of history permanently reconfigured the state legislature of Nebraska.
Of all the great changes that reshaped our nation in the 1930s — the proliferation of motion pictures, the New Deal, the end of Prohibition — perhaps no Depression-era reform is quite as unusual as the abolition of the Nebraska House of Representatives. Although the unicameral model hasn’t spread, Nebraska retains it to this day.
And it all started with one man’s trip to Australia.
Just after the start of the Civil War, a small family of Pennsylvania Dutch farmers welcomed a baby boy to their Ohio ranch. That child, George William Norris, would ultimately become one of the most influential Republican Senators in an era when Democrats dominated both chambers of the U.S. Congress.
Senator Norris fought the railroad lobby, rallied support for the direct election of senators, and attempted to abolish the Electoral College. In 1931, Senator Norris visited Australia, where he studied unicameral…
