Stephen Ira Cohen (born May 24, 1949) is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative from since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes the western three-fourths of Memphis. Cohen is Tennessee's first Jewish congressman and since 2023 has been the only Democrat in the state's congressional delegation. Early life and education Cohen was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on May 24, 1949, the son of Genevieve (née Goldsand) and pediatrician Morris David Cohen. He has two older brothers, Michael Corey and Martin D. Cohen. He is a fourth-generation Memphian and a grandson of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania and Poland. His immigrant grandfather owned a newsstand. 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 he was 11, 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 hangs in his office. In 1961, Cohen's family moved to Coral Gables, Florida, where his father took a residency in psychiatry at the University of Miami. From 1964 to 1966, the Cohens lived in Pasadena, California, where Dr. Cohen completed a fellowship in pediatric psychiatry at the University of Southern California. Cohen, who had been attending Polytechnic School in Pasadena, returned to Florida in 1966 to graduate from Coral Gables Senior High School before returning to Memphis where his father had established his private psychiatry practice. Cohen graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. At Vanderbilt, he was a member of the Alpha Gamma chapter of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. In 1973, he graduated from the University of Memphis School of Law of Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) with a Juris Doctor. Cohen is unmarried and lives in a Midtown neighborhood. Early career From 1978 to 2006, Cohen was the sole practitioner of his own law firm, practicing civil and criminal law. While serving for three years as legal advisor for the Memphis Police Department, Cohen rose to political prominence when he was elected vice president of the Tennessee Constitutional Convention of 1977 at age 27. Cohen was then elected to serve as a commissioner on the Shelby County Commission, serving from 1978 to 1980. During his time at the