Jim Cooper

Jim Cooper
Official portrait, 2013
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee
In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2023
Preceded by	Bob Clement
Succeeded by	Andy Ogles
Constituency	5th district
In office January 3, 1983 – January 3, 1995
Preceded by	Redistricted
Succeeded by	Van Hilleary
Constituency	4th district
Personal details
Born	James Hayes Shofner Cooper (1954-06-19) June 19, 1954 (age 69) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Martha Hayes ​ ​ (m. 1985; died 2021)​ Mary Falls ​ (m. 2022)​
Children	3
Relatives	Prentice Cooper (father) John Cooper (brother)
Education	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (BA) Oriel College, Oxford (MA) Harvard University (JD)
Jim Cooper's voice Jim Cooper speaks in support of the FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act Recorded July 26, 2018

James Hayes Shofner Cooper (born June 19, 1954) is an American lawyer, businessman, professor, and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Tennessee's 5th congressional district (based in Nashville and containing parts of Davidson, Cheatham, and Dickson Counties) from 2003 to 2023. He is a member of the Democratic Party and was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, and represented Tennessee's 4th congressional district from 1983 to 1995.^[1] His district included all of Nashville. He chaired the United States House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces of the House Armed Services Committee, and sat on the Committee on Oversight and Reform, United States House Committee on the Budget, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, more committees than any other member of Congress. At the end of his tenure, he was also the dean of Tennessee's congressional delegation. Cooper is the third-longest serving member of Congress ever from Tennessee, after Jimmy Quillen and B. Carroll Reece.

Due to Cooper's rare split tenure in Congress in two entirely different districts, his career was divided in two fields: regulatory and health care legislation in the rural 4th district and military affairs in the urban 5th.

Cooper built seniority and respect on two different sets of committees, becoming what The New York Times op-ed writer Joe Nocera called "the conscience of the House, a lonely voice for civility in this ugly era."^[2]

Cooper announced that he would not seek reelection in 2022 after accusing Tennessee's Republican-led state legislature of partisan gerrymandering in the redistricting cycle.^[3] The new congressional map, which split Davidson County into 3 separate districts, turned TN-5 from a Democratic-leaning seat into a Republican one. Cooper was succeeded by Republican Andy Ogles.