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Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.)

U.S. Representative (since 2003)

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Why He Matters

Cooper, the son of a Tennessee governor, has spent over two decades in Congress. The Democrat is currently the U.S. representative from Tennessee's 5th district, which includes all of Nashville. He previously represented the larger and more rural 4th district.

Cooper has a degree in economics and has made controlling growth in the federal budget one of his top issues. He is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a collection of fiscally-conservative Democrats that took a beating in the 2010 elections.

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Dem Rep.: Sandy bill a 'new level of congressional irresponsibility'

Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) was joined by 179 House Republicans and no other Democrats in voting against $50 billion in Sandy relief.

Topic

Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.)

U.S. Representative (since 2003)

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Roger Ailes moves the goalposts on his network's allegedly clean error rate.

Tennessee GOP confronts tough choice on targeting Cooper

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A look at how the decennial redistricting process might play out in Tennessee.

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Turning Congress’s partisans into problem solvers

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At a Glance

  • Career History: Investment banker (1995 to 2002); U.S. Representative (1982 to 1994); Attorney (1980 to 1982)
  • Birthday: June 19, 1954
  • Hometown: Nashville, Tenn.
  • Alma Mater: University of North Carolina, B.A., 1975; Oxford University, B.A./M.A., 1977; Harvard Law School, J.D., 1980
  • Spouse: Martha
  • Religion: Episcopalian
  • Committees: House Armed Services Committee and Oversight and Government Reform Committee
  • DC Office: 1536 Longworth House Office Building, 202-225-4311
  • District Office: Nashville, 615-736-5295
  • Web site
 

Path to Power

Cooper was born in 1954 in Nashville, Tenn., where his father, Prentice Cooper, served as governor for six years. Cooper left Tennessee for college, going first to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he studied history and economics, graduated as a Morehead Scholar and worked as the co-editor of the Daily Tar Heel, the school newspaper.After graduation, he earned a Rhodes scholarship to study politics and economics at Oxford University and then received his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Cooper worked at the law firm of Waller, Lansden, Dortch and Davis in Nashville for two years after graduating from Harvard Law School, but after two years, when a seat opened up in the U.S. House, Cooper left private practice for politics. He ran for a U.S. House seat representing the 4th District of Tennessee in 1982. His opponent was Cissy Baker, the daughter of then-Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker (R-Tenn.), but Cooper won easily in what was at the time the most expensive House race in state history. The 28-year-old Cooper was the youngest member of Congress when he won. He quickly made friends, raised a lot of money and has never had trouble getting re-elected.

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The Issues

Though he's from the generally conservative state of Tennessee and is a member of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition, Cooper restricts that conservatism to economic issues. "Cooper and his fellow Blue Dogs don't like measuring by the 'trillion,'" Washingtonian magazine wrote in 2009. He supports abortion rights and gun control. During his first stint in Congress, he supported a law banning smoking on airplanes, despite the fact that the district he represented at the time included a number of tobacco farmers. "I'm not anti-tobacco," Cooper said. "I'm anti-cancer. … [I'm] anxious to keep [my constituents] alive as long as possible."

The Blue Dog voted with the Democratic Party 90.5 percent of the time in the 110th Congress. His support for trade agreements has consistently pitted him against labor unions, and his 1994 health care bill challenged President Bill Clinton's proposal and was unpopular with the party leadership. He spent his first stint in Congress on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he worked closely on the Clean Air Act.

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The Network

Cooper is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, where he will likely become more powerful in the 112thCongress as its ranks dramatically shrank after the 2010 elections.

Cooper's father, Prentice Cooper, wasTennessee governor. He has worked with prominent Tennessee politicians such as Al Gore and Harold Ford Jr.

 

Additional Resources

  1. Theobald, Bill, "Cooper urges cuts to offset spending," The Tennessean (Nashville, Tenn.), Nov. 26, 2008
  2. Powelson, Richard, "Cooper giving his pay raise to scholarship fund," Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), Sept. 11, 1994
  3. Daughtrey, Larry, "If you're talking Comeback Kid, you could be talking Jim Cooper," The Tennessean, Aug. 11, 2002
  4. Powelson, Richard, "Voters must sort truth from fiction in election," Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), Nov. 6, 1994
  5. Broder, David S., "Upstaging the president; Rep. Cooper and his bill grab limelight," The Washington Post, Feb. 3, 1994
  6. Berke, Richard L., "Health debate is filling campaign coffers," The New York Times, April 19, 1994
  7. Presentation on Jim Cooper's official Web site
  8. "Cooper: No earmarks for FY 2010," Jim Cooper's official Web site
  9. Cooper press release, March 21, 2010
  10. Pear, Robert, Hernandez, Raymond and Savage, Charlie, "Reconsidering a critical vote, under intense pressure," The New York Times, Oct. 4, 2008
  11. CQ's Politics in America 1994
  12. Presentation on Jim Cooper's official Web site
  13. Almanac of American Politics, 2008 edition
  14. Almanac of American Politics, 1994 edition
  15. "Friend of For?" Washingtonian, April 2009
  16. "Cooper: Stimulus a 'procedural abomination,'" Nashville Business Journal, Feb. 16, 2009
  17. CQ's Politics in America 1994
  18. Humphrey, Tom, "Thompson's support sets off-year vote record," Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), Nov. 10, 1994
  19. Cousins, Juanita, "1 in 3 Tennesseans uninsured during past 2 years," The Associate Press State & Local Wire, March 31, 2009
  20. Biography of Jim Cooper on Cooper's official House Web site
  21. "Guaranteeing Health Care for All Americans," Ron Wyden's official Web site
  22. "Stimulus digs deeper holes than it fills," Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), Feb. 20, 2009