Steve Cohen’s life story is one of resilience and determination. He’s a fourth generation Memphian. When he was five, he contracted polio and spent months in the hospital and many more on crutches. He couldn’t run and play with the other children, but his hardship forged resilience and molded Steve Cohen into a fighter and champion for people in need.
Steve graduated from Vanderbilt and University of Memphis School of Law. In 1976 and 1977, Steve was elected to the Tennessee State constitutional convention and, at age 28, elected Vice President. At 29, while serving as an attorney for the Memphis Police Department, Steve was elected to the Shelby County Commission where he worked to create the Med, or Regional One Hospital.
He went on to serve 24 years in the Tennessee State Senate, where he became a leading voice for civil rights, women’s rights, educational opportunity, and government reform and a champion for the arts and animal welfare. Steve won numerous awards from civil rights and government watchdog groups. He was the only member of the legislature to receive the Bill of Rights Award from the American Civil Liberties Union, and the only member to receive the Human Rights Campaign’s Public Leadership Award. Steve also received the Bird Dog Award for Ethics from Common Cause.
Steve is perhaps best known for creating the Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship, opening the doors of higher education to hundreds of thousands of students and transforming lives across the state. So far, over $8 billion has been raised for Tennessee’s children.
Since 2007, Congressman Steve Cohen has represented Tennessee’s 9th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Steve works to make our government serve regular people, rather than powerful corporate interests with high-paid D.C. lobbyists. He played a key role in the passage of Obama Care, fought tirelessly in defense of Social Security and Medicare, and brought home huge investments in infrastructure and job creation. Most recently, Steve secured $71.2 million for the Lamar Avenue redevelopment project and almost $400 million for a new I-55 Bridge over the Mississippi, which is the largest infrastructure investment in Tennessee’s history. Since 2022, Steve has delivered more than $69.3 million across 54 projects, more than any other Congressman in the Memphis history. In the most recent rankings, Steve Cohen was in the top five most effective Democrats in Congress.
A senior member of the House Judiciary Committee and former Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, Steve has been a steadfast defender of the rule of law and democratic institutions. He has consistently spoken out against corruption, abuses of power, and efforts to undermine the integrity of American elections. He was the first Member of Congress to file full articles of impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, and as a senior Member of the Judiciary Committee, he will hold Trump accountable when Democrats are back in power.
Throughout his career, Steve Cohen has fought for a better America: one where democracy is protected, civil rights are expanded, and government works to serve its people. Whether standing up to powerful interests, defending the free press, or advocating for communities too often overlooked, he remains guided by a simple belief: public service is about lifting others up and leaving the country stronger than we found it.
For Steve Cohen, the fight for fairness is not abstract. It’s personal. It’s rooted in his hometown, Memphis, a city shaped by the long struggle for justice, and it’s grounded in his own childhood. At a time when America faces real threats to our democracy and to the health and well-being of our people, Steve Cohen fights for us every single day.
