William Thad Cochran (/ˈkɒkrən/ KOK-rən; December 7, 1937 – May 30, 2019) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator for Mississippi from 1978 to 2018.

With over 45 years of combined House and Senate service, Cochran is the second longest-serving member of Congress ever from Mississippi, only after former Democratic U.S. Representative Jamie L.

[8] After a time in the United States Navy (1959–1961), where he was commissioned an ensign aboard the USS Macon, Cochran received a J.D.

Following graduation, Cochran practiced law at the firm of Watkins & Eager in Jackson, Mississippi, where he was promoted to partner.

[11] That year, Democratic Congressman Charles H. Griffin of Mississippi's 3rd congressional district decided not to run for a third full term.

[15][a] In the 1974 elections, Cochran won in a landslide victory with 70.2 percent of the vote, winning every county besides black-majority Claiborne and Jefferson.

Cochran ran for the seat and won the Republican primary, defeating state senator and former Jones County prosecutor Charles W. Pickering, 69%–31% percent.

In the general election, he faced Democrat Maurice Dantin, a former district attorney who had triumphed in a four-way primary with the backing of Eastland, and Independent candidate Charles Evers, the mayor of Fayette.

[26] Cochran faced his strongest challenger in twenty-four years in 2008 when the Democrats nominated State Representative Erik R. Fleming.

Cochran's seniority and appropriating skills contrasted with the junior status of the rest of the state's congressional delegation.

[31] In May 2014, a scandal emerged when a McDaniel supporter allegedly entered a nursing home where Cochran's bedridden wife was living and took pictures of her.

[44][45] Generally, Cochran kept a lower national profile than conventional wisdom would suggest for someone who spent almost half a century in Washington, including seven terms in the Senate.

[46] In March 1981, after the Senate Agriculture Committee overwhelmingly approved a proposal to enact a temporary freeze on the level of dairy price supports and thereby gave President Ronald Reagan his first congressional victory for his federal spending reductions, Cochran stated that the vote was "a great victory for" Reagan and "a very important first step in having his program adopted by Congress.

"[47] In April 1981, along with Bob Packwood, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, John Heinz, David Pryor, Spark M. Matsunaga, Donald W. Riegle Jr., and Bill Bradley, Cochran was one of eight senators to cosponsor a bipartisan six-year experiment in care at home for the elderly and disabled for the purpose of presenting an alternative to expensive hospitals and nursing facilities.

While Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Cochran worked to expedite the process of approving spending bills to minimize partisan skirmishing.

[51] On June 13, 2005, the U.S. Senate formally apologized for its failure to enact a federal anti-lynching law in the early 20th century, "when it was most needed".

Time reported that Cochran managed to wring "$29 billion out of his colleagues, almost double the money [President George W.] Bush and congressional leaders had initially pledged".

[54] Earlier, Cochran threatened to derail a defense appropriations bill unless it included funding for installations on the Gulf Coast.

The article also noted that Cochran has "gained the trust of the [Bush] Administration and Capitol Hill for his quiet, courtly manner... using his experience and mastery of the issues to persuade his colleagues privately rather than making demands on them in public".

The magazine quoted an unnamed "senior GOP Senator" who said "He doesn't get a whole lot of play in terms of coverage, but he is effectively stubborn doing what needs to be done.

The others, all Republicans, were Wayne Allard, Kit Bond, Tom Coburn, Jeff Sessions, Jim Inhofe, Pat Roberts, John Cornyn and Ted Stevens.

I am confident that Mississippians have learned valuable lessons from previous storms and will work together to prepare for this newest threat, I believe Governor Bryant and others are handling emergency preparedness actions very well.

[68] Cochran had an A+ rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) due to his consistent voting and support of pro-gun legislation.

[70] In April 2013, Cochran was one of forty-six senators to vote against the passing of a bill which would have expanded background checks for gun buyers.

[71] Cochran voted to repeal a regulation that made it illegal for certain individuals with specific mental health diagnosis to purchase guns.

3706 (98th) – A bill to amend title 5, United States Code, to make the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., a legal public holiday.

[77] In January 2018, Cochran was one of thirty-six Republican senators to sign a letter to President Trump requesting he preserve the North American Free Trade Agreement by modernizing it for the economy of the 21st century.

[97] The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, which was signed into law on March 23, 2018, named the federal courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi after Cochran.

[100] On August 9, 2018, a ceremony was held to recognize the naming of the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi.

"[102] In 2018, a report indicated that Cochran's official papers were to be housed in the Modern Political Archives at the University of Mississippi.