Lott served in numerous leadership positions in both chambers of Congress as one of the first of a wave of Republicans winning seats in Southern states that had been solidly Democratic.

In 2003, he stepped down from the position after controversy due to his praising of Senator Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist Dixiecrat presidential bid.

Seventeen days later, Lott was restored as Senate Majority Leader after Republicans regained control of the chamber upon the inauguration of the new vice president, Dick Cheney, on January 20.

Following Republican gains in the 2002 midterm elections, Lott was slated to again become Majority Leader when the next Senate session began in January 2003.

However, on December 20, 2002, after significant controversy following comments he made regarding Strom Thurmond's presidential candidacy, Lott resigned as Senate Minority Leader.

Lott serves as a Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), where he focuses on issues related to energy, national security, transportation and congressional reforms.

[5] At the time that Lott was president, the Sigma Nu fraternity house was raided by the troops from the 716th Battalion during the "Battle of Oxford".

[8][9] Lott served as administrative assistant to House Rules Committee chairman William M. Colmer, also of Pascagoula, from 1968 to 1972.

Lott won handily, in large part due to Richard Nixon's landslide victory in that year's presidential election.

Lott won by running up a 70 percent margin in his congressional district, and was also helped by George H. W. Bush easily carrying the state in the presidential election.

In 1989, on the 25th anniversary of the murder of the civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, Lott and the rest of the Mississippi congressional delegation refused to vote for the non-binding resolution honoring the three men which nevertheless passed the Congress.

For instance, in 1998, Lott caused some controversy in Congress when as a guest on the Armstrong Williams television show, he equated homosexuality with alcoholism, kleptomania and sex addiction.

[15] According to the Anti-Defamation League, Lott was a frequent speaker at the white supremacist group Council of Conservative Citizens.

[18] After the 2000 elections produced a 50–50 partisan split in the Senate, Vice President Al Gore's tie-breaking vote gave the Democrats the majority from January 3 to 20, 2001, when George W. Bush took office and Vice President Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the majority once again.

[20] In the wake of the controversy, Lott resigned as Senate Republican Leader on December 20, 2002, effective at the start of the next session, January 3, 2003.

In the book Free Culture, Lawrence Lessig argues that Lott's resignation would not have occurred had it not been for the effect of Internet blogs.

"[22] After losing the Majority Leader post, Lott was less visible on the national scene, although he did break with some standard conservative positions.

On November 15, 2006, Lott regained a leadership position in the Senate, when he was named Minority Whip after defeating Lamar Alexander of Tennessee 25–24.

State representative Erik R. Fleming placed first of four candidates in the June Democratic primary, but did not receive the 50 percent of the vote required to earn the party's nomination.

[28] According to CNN, his resignation was at least partly due to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which forbade lawmakers from lobbying for two years after leaving office.

[31] On January 7, 2008, it was announced that Lott and former Senator John Breaux of Louisiana, a Democrat, opened their lobbying firm about a block from the White House.

[32] In January 2008, he co-founded the Breaux-Lott Leadership Group, a "strategic advice, consulting, and lobbying" firm together with former Louisiana Senator John Breaux.

In September 2014, lobbyist filings revealed that Lott was contracted to advocate on behalf of Gazprombank, a Russian majority state-owned bank targeted with sanctions over the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine.

[39][40] On February 14, 2009, The New York Times reported the indictment of Judge Bobby DeLaughter for taking bribes from Richard Scruggs, Lott's brother-in-law.

[43] For the 2016 presidential election, Lott served as a national co-chair for John Kasich, before shifting his support to Donald Trump's campaign once he became the nominee.

[citation needed] Lott is a Freemason, and holds the Grand Cross in the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

[55] The character of Lott Dod, a Neimoidian senator of the Trade Federation from the film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace is named after him.