Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.)

Tennessee Senate

Cohen was elected to Tennessee Senate in 1982. During his 24 years in the chamber, he became well-known for his liberal politics and for his direct and straight-shooting style.

He was one of the only senators to oppose a constitutional ban on gay marriage and fight legislation urging Tennesseans to display the Ten Commandments in their home. He championed the creation of a state income tax, a cause few if any politicians were willing to embrace. Critical of his party for being too beholden to special interests, he urged ethics reform, for instance limits on campaign contributions and spending.

But Cohen's defining issue for nearly two decades was his crusade to implement a state lottery and link a portion of the proceeds to scholarships. As early as 1984, Cohen introduced legislation calling for a referendum on this question. His efforts fell short year after year, until he finally succeeded in convincing the legislature to put his proposal on the ballot in 2002. After a heated campaign, 57 percent of Tennesseans voted to create a state lottery - one of the biggest victories of Cohen's career.

The Democrat subsequently worked to shape his brainchild's implementation and to increase the portion of the proceeds devoted to scholarships, at times roughly clashing with Gov. Phil Bredesen (D).

2006 House Election

Cohen briefly ran for governor in the 1994 cycle, when he positioned himself as an outsider. In 1996, he ran for Congress when U.S. Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.) retired from Tennessee's 9th district. In the Democratic primary, Cohen faced Harold Ford Jr. (D), the incumbent's 26-year-old son, who swept black precincts on his way to a 61 to 34 percent victory. ''The fact is I am white, and it doesn't seem to matter what you do,'' Cohen said after the vote.

When Harold Ford Jr. decided to run for Senate in 2006, Cohen mounted a second run for the 9th district.

While the 1996 primary had been a two-person affair, this time Cohen benefited from the large number of African-American candidates in the race. Cohen, who said his voting record was similar to that of "a black woman," clinched the Democratic nomination with 31 percent of the vote.

Cohen's primary victory was expected to guarantee him the seat in this heavily-Democratic district, but the general election grew heated with the independent candidacy of Jake Ford, Harold's brother. The contest's racial tone attracted national attention, with many influential black leaders calling on voters to reject Cohen. However, Cohen also received support from prominent Democratic officials like Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton. On Election Day, he enjoyed a landslide victory, 60 to 22 percent for Ford and 18 percent for Mark White (R).

Cohen's victory made him Tennessee's first Jewish congressman and a rare white lawmaker to represent a majority-black district.

2008 and 2010 Races

Cohen continued to entertain a rocky relationship with some of Memphis's African-American leaders. Most notably, his support for a federal bill expanding the definition of hate crimes to cover sexual orientation provoked an ugly confrontation between Cohen and black ministers. In the 2008 Democratic primary, Cohen faced a rematch against Nikki Tinker. This election became one of the cycle's most memorably negative campaigns due to its racially-divisive tone and to two inflammatory ads ran by Tinker's campaign.

The first ad, which blamed Cohen for not voting to remove a statue commemorating Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest, juxtaposed a picture of Cohen to that of a klansman in front of a burning cross. The second ad said of Cohen, who is Jewish,, "While he's in our churches, clapping his hands and tapping his feet ... he's the only senator who thought our kids shouldn't be allowed to pray in school." The ads drew condemnations from Barack Obama, then the Democrats' presidential nominee. On Election Day, Cohen triumphed 79 to 19 percent.

Cohen faced yet another difficult primary in 2010, this time against former supporter Willie Herenton, Memphis's five-term mayor.

Once again, the election became racially divisive. "To know Steve Cohen is to know that he really does not think very much of African-Americans," said Herenton, who aimed to highlight the absence of any black member in Tennessee's congressional delegation.

"I don't know the black experience, but I know about being a minority and being discriminated against because of religion," replied Cohen, who was endorsed by many African-American lawmakers.On Election Day, Cohen again prevailed with 79 percent of the vote - a stunning landslide given Herenton's high-profile.

In the U.S. House

Within weeks of taking office, Cohen introduced a resolution that apologized for slavery and segregation. It was adopted by Congress in summer 2008, making it the first apology for slavery issued by any branch of the federal government. "I hope that this is part of the beginning of a dialogue that this country needs to engage in, concerning what the effects of slavery and Jim Crow have been," Cohen said.

Another bill that Cohen authored and successfully pushed through Congress is the SPEECH Act, which prevents U.S. courts from enforcing foreign libel judgments.

In January 2010, Cohen compared Republicans' rhetoric against health-care reform and their talk of a "government takeover" to the lies spun by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. A few months later, he once again sparked controversy for his description of tea partiers. "The Tea Party people are kind of, without robes and hoods, they have really shown a very hardcore angry side of America that is against any type of diversity.

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