Reflecting On The Career Of Mississippi’s Champion, Senator Thad Cochran

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Political leaders and colleagues, past and present, are reflecting on Senator Thad Cochran’s long career in national politics.

The senior Senator on Monday, announced his plans to resign from the Senate.

Cochran cites his health as an ongoing challenge, but intends to complete the appropriations cycle before retiring on April 1st.

This month marks a year since Senator Thad Cochran was recognized as the tenth longest-serving Senator in United States history.

He is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations and began his career in Congress in 1972.

“He is someone that personifies high integrity. He’s someone in his entire career that has always worked, I think, very hard in serving his constituents and he’s just someone who has respect for everybody.”

Mississippi State University President Dr. Mark Keenum started working with Senator Thad Cochran in the late 80’s, on a two-year assignment to help him with a farm bill.

“That two years became 18 years and then from there, I served him over a decade as his chief of staff. He taught me a lot about how to conduct myself as a human being.”

The two are still very close.

Keenum says he knew Cochran’s decision was a matter of time, but did not know it would be on Monday.

He says he’s proud of Cochran’s decision and believes it’s best for him, but hates it for Mississippi, because he’s been a champion for the State.

“When these conservative budgets that he works to achieve are established, the thing I’ve noticed, in his more than 45 years of service, is that he will always go to bat to make sure that Mississippi would get its fair share.”

Throughout his career in Congress, he has worked with nine different Presidents and was the first Republican in over 100 years to win a statewide election in Mississippi.

From his position of leadership, Cochran has worked hard for many things.

“National security, National defense, which in Mississippi, is so very very important with all of our military bases. He’s recognized as a champion for agriculture and natural resources, for education, from K-12 all the way up through universities, and a strong advocate for research funding.”

The university president says Cochran’s resignation leaves big shoes to fill for anyone in our state.

“I think infrastructure in our state, many of our roads, and a lot of the facilities in many of our cities, infrastructure in communities, they owe that because of Senator Cochran’s leadership.”

The Senator graduated from Ole Miss in 1959 and served in the U.S. Naval Reserve through his law school years, where he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant.