Thad Cochran is the senior United States Senator from the State of Mississippi.
He was elected to the Senate in 1978 and has been re-elected with landslide margins five times.
He is the Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and its Subcommittee on Defense. He also serves as a member of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, the Committee on Rules and Administration, and the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.
He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Mississippi and studied international law for a year under a Rotary Foundation Fellowship at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He has been awarded honorary degrees from five other colleges and universities.
Before his election to Congress in 1972, Senator Cochran practiced law in Jackson, Mississippi; and he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy.