Stephen Ira "Steve" Cohen (born May 24, 1949) is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives representing Tennessee's ninth district. The district includes almost three-fourths of Memphis.
Prior to his election to the House in November 2006, Cohen was a Tennessee State Senator for 24 years. He is Tennessee's first Jewish congressman. Cohen is one of only two non-blacks representing majority black districts in Congress.
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Stephen Ira "Steve" Cohen (born May 24, 1949) is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives representing Tennessee's ninth district. The district includes almost three-fourths of Memphis.
Prior to his election to the House in November 2006, Cohen was a Tennessee State Senator for 24 years. He is Tennessee's first Jewish congressman. Cohen is one of only two non-blacks representing majority black districts in Congress.
Cohen was born in Memphis, Tennessee on May 24, 1949 to pediatrician Morris D. Cohen and his wife Genevieve. He is a fourth-generation Memphian, and is the grandson of a Jewish newsstand owner who immigrated from Lithuania. Cohen contracted polio when he was five, and the disease caused him to shift his attention from sports to politics at an early age. When Cohen was eleven, John F. Kennedy made a campaign stop in Memphis, and Cohen took a picture of Kennedy sitting on a convertible. Cohen describes Kennedy as his political hero; the picture still...
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