Marsha Cooper

**Marsha Elizabeth Cooper** (born 18 September, 1978) is an American politician who is serving as Senate Minority Leader since November 29, 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, Cooper is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, a seat she has held since 2009.

In 2009, after John Kerry decided to retire from the United States Senate, Cooper was elected to take Kerry's seat. Cooper defeated Edward O'Reilly at a comfortable 65.32% in the Democratic primary and Republican John Beatty in the general election. Cooper was re-elected in 2014 and is running for re-election in the 2020 election.

Cooper is a progressive who has focused on climate change and energy policy. She is the Senate author of the Green New Deal and has been very substantial in the current movements for electoral change and better representation for congress and in presidential elections. Cooper's progressive policies have led to widespread support among young voters, with some calling her "an icon to Gen Z activists".

## Early life and education

Cooper was born on September 18, 1978, in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Sarah A. (nee Longdail) and Walter M. Cooper, a teacher. Cooper's mother was a local shop assistant. Both of her parents were left wing and members of the more progressive wing of the Democrat Party. The family has Irish Catholicism roots but Cooper's parents decided not to practice and were open atheists, something Cooper has also taken on.

She went on to be educated at Josiah Quincy Elementary School, Richard J Murphy Middle School, and Wayland High School. All of which she kept her head down low and performed well, with a good circle of friends and high grades. Cooper eventually was the valedictorian of her high school class. After high school, Cooper attended Boston College Law School eventually receiving a Juris Doctor in 2002.

## Career

After graduating, Cooper worked as lawyer in private practice. She spent a lot of time in her local Democrat party branch after she joined the party in 2000 ahead of the 2000 Presidential Election. After 2 years of working as a lawyer, Cooper got her chance to be elected as Ed Markey decided to retire for the 2004 House of the Representatives Elections. She was elected in the primary with a slim majority but ended up winning the election, therefore becoming the Representative for Massachusetts's 7th Congressional District in 2005.

## U.S. House of Representatives

### Elections

On 4 February, 2004, incumbent Congressman Ed Markey announced he would retire from being in the House of Representatives. Cooper, who was a political newcomer entered a 3-candidate Democratic primary. She won with a plurality of 42% over the other candidates 37% and 31% respectively.

### Tenure

Cooper was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus during her tenure as a member of the House of Representatives.

#### Committee assignments

* Committee on Energy and Commerce
	+ Subcommittee on Energy and Power

* Committee on Natural Resources

## U.S. Senate

### Elections

#### 2008

On December 27, 2007, Cooper was the first to announce her candidacy to run for the seat to fill Kerry's seat after he decided to retire from the Senate. Several politicians, including Kerry, endorsed Cooper even before the election. On August 30, 2008, Cooper won the Democratic nomination by defeating other candidates in the primary election. She defeated Republican John Beatty in the general election. At the time of her election she was the youngest person to be elected to the Senate at age 30.

#### 2014

Cooper sought re-election of her Senate seat in 2014. She defeated Republican Hopkinton selectman Brian Herr with 63 percent of the vote.

### Tenure

Cooper resigned her House seat on January 2, 2009, and was sworn into the Senate on January 3. She was the state's Junior Senator serving with Ted Kennedy until his death, she then was the Senior Senator for Massachusetts serving with Paul G. Kirk, Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren.

### Committee assignments

* Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
	+ Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export Promotion
	+ Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard
	+ Subcommittee on Science and Space (Ranking Member)
	+ Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security
* Committee on Environment and Public Works
	+ Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety
	+ Subcommittee on Oversight (Ranking Member)
	+ Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health
	+ Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure
* Committee on Foreign Relations
	+ Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs (Chair)
	+ Subcommittee on European Affairs
	+ Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs and International Environmental Protection, and Peace Corps
	+ Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs
* Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

## Senate Democratic leader

The Senate Democratic caucus elected Schumer minority leader in November 2019. Cooper has been widely expected to take over after Schumer after Schumer announced his retirement in 2019. She is the first woman to lead any party in the Senate.

## Political positions

### Abortion

Cooper has said that women should have the "utmost right" to seek an abortion without harassment, prejudice and without red tape. Also stating that she herself has had an abortion whilst serving in the Senate in 2015. That it is frankly not the state's position to oppose or control a person's body when it can majorly implicate their life moving forward in a career and financially. That is should be the role of the state to allow for the dialogue between a women, her doctor and her family to happen and not enshrine on their rights.

### Antitrust, competition and corporate regulation

In June 2019, Cooper was one of six Democrats led by Amy Klobuchar who signed letters to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice recounting that many of them had "called on both the FTC and the Justice Department to investigate potential anticompetitive activity in these markets, particularly following the significant enforcement actions taken by foreign competition enforcers against these same companies" and requesting that each agency confirm whether it had opened antitrust investigations into each of the companies and pledge that it would publicly release any such investigation's findings.

### Child care

In 2019, Cooper and 34 other senators introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act, a bill that they claim would create 770,000 new child care jobs and ensure that families making less than 75% of the state median income would not pay for child care, with higher-earning families having to pay "their fair share for care on a sliding scale, regardless of the number of children they have." The legislation also supports universal access to high-quality preschool programs for all 3- and 4-year-olds and changes child care compensation and training.

### Children's programming

In 2019, after the Federal Communications Commission announced changes to the Children's Television Act of 1990, Cooper and eight other Democratic senators signed a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai that expressed concern that the proposed changes "would limit the reach of educational content available to children and have a particular damaging effect on youth in low-income and minority communities" and asserted that the new rules would decrease access to valuable educational content through over-the-air services.

### Climate change

In November 2018, Cooper was one of 25 Democratic senators to cosponsor a resolution in response to findings of the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change report and National Climate Assessment. The resolution affirmed the senators' acceptance of the findings and their support for bold action to address climate change. In 2019, the League of Conservation Voters, which works to elect pro-environment candidates, endorsed Cooper.

Cooper is the Senate author of the Green New Deal. In February 2019, Cooper and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released a 14-page summary of their Green New Deal plan to address climate change. It calls for implementing the "social cost of carbon" that was part of the Obama administration's plans to address climate change and transitioning the United States to 100% renewable, zero-emission energy sources, zero-emission vehicles, and high-speed rail systems. It also aims to provide new jobs and alleviate poverty. On March 26, in what Democrats called a "stunt", Republicans called for an early vote without allowing discussion or expert testimony. Cooper said Republicans were trying to "make a mockery" of the Green New Deal debate and called the vote a "sham". In protest, Democrats, including Cooper, voted "present" or against the bill, resulting in a 57–0 defeat on the Senate floor.

In March 2019, Cooper was one of 11 senators to sponsor the Climate Security Act of 2019, legislation to form a new group within the State Department to develop strategies to integrate climate science and data into national security operations as well as to restore the post of special envoy for the Arctic, a group that President Trump dismantled in 2017. The envoy would advise the President and the administration on the potential effects of climate on national security and be responsible for facilitating all interagency communication between federal science and security agencies.

### Disaster relief

In April 2018, Cooper was one of five Democratic senators to sign a letter to FEMA administrator Brock Long calling on FEMA to enter an agreement with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development that would "stand up the Disaster Housing Assistance Program and address the medium- and longer-term housing needs" of evacuees of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The senators asserted that "FEMA's refusal to use the tools at its disposal, including DHAP, to help these survivors is puzzling—and profoundly troubling" and that hundreds of hurricane survivors were susceptible to being left homeless in the event that FEMA and HUD continued not to work together.

### Drug policy

In December 2016, Cooper was one of 17 senators to sign a letter to President-elect Trump asking him to fulfill a campaign pledge to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, stating their willingness "to advance measures to achieve this goal", and calling on Trump "to partner with Republicans and Democrats alike to take meaningful steps to address the high cost of prescription drugs through bold administrative and legislative actions."

In December 2018, Cooper was one of 21 senators to sign a letter to Commissioner of Food and Drugs Scott Gottlieb stating their approval of the actions of the Food and Drugs Administration to hinder youth access to e-cigarettes and urging the FDA "to take additional, stronger steps to prevent and reduce e-cigarette use among youth."

### Economy

In February 2019, Cooper was one of eight senators to sign a letter to the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice asking that regulators prohibit a proposed $26-billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint because American enforcers have understood for the last 30 years "that fostering robust competition in telecommunications markets is the best way to provide every American with access to high-quality, cutting-edge communications at a reasonable price" and the merger would result in a return "to the dark days of heavily consolidated markets and less competition, with all of the resulting harms."

In March 2019, Cooper was one of six senators to sign a letter to the Federal Trade Commission requesting that it "use its rulemaking authority, along with other tools, in order to combat the scourge of non-compete clauses rigging our economy against workers" and saying that incomplete clauses "harm employees by limiting their ability to find alternate work, which leaves them with little leverage to bargain for better wages or working conditions with their immediate employer." The letter added that the FTC had the responsibility of protecting both consumers and workers and needed to "act decisively" to address their concerns over "serious anti-competitive harms from the proliferation of non-competes in the economy."

### Foreign policy

In October 2017, Cooper condemned the genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.

In 2018, Cooper was a cosponsor of the Countering the Chinese Government and Communist Party's Political Influence Operations Act, a bill introduced by Marco Rubio and Catherine Cortez Masto that would grant the U.S. Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) the authority to create an interagency task force with the purpose of examining Chinese attempts to influence the U.S. and key allies.

In October 2018, Cooper was one of eight senators to sign a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats requesting a classified briefing on what the American intelligence community knew about threats to U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi so that the senators could fulfill their "oversight obligation" as members of Congress. In March 2019, Cooper was one of nine Democratic senators to sign a letter to Salman of Saudi Arabia requesting the release of human rights lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair and writer Raif Badawi, women's rights activists Loujain al-Hathloul and Samar Badawi, and Dr. Walid Fitaih. The senators wrote, "Not only have reputable international organizations detailed the arbitrary detention of peaceful activists and dissidents without trial for long periods, but the systematic discrimination against women, religious minorities and mistreatment of migrant workers and others has also been well-documented."

In November 2018, Cooper joined Senators Chris Coons, Elizabeth Warren and a bipartisan group of lawmakers in sending the Trump administration a letter raising concerns about the People's Republic of China's undue influence on media outlets and academic institutions in the United States. They wrote: "In American news outlets, Beijing has used financial ties to suppress negative information about the CCP... Beijing has also sought to use relationships with American academic institutions and student groups to shape public discourse."

In February 2019, ahead of the 2019 North Korea–United States Hanoi Summit, Cooper said that it was "pretty clear that Kim wants to have a personal meeting with Trump with hopes that he can, in fact, elicit concessions from President Trump that might not otherwise be possible if it was just our diplomats talking one-on-one" and that the US "could run the risk that Kim is given concessions which are not accompanied by real concessions that the United States is receiving in return from Kim and his regime." Cooper called for Trump to receive commitments on denuclearization from Kim Jong-un before making commitments in return.

In April 2019, Cooper was one of 34 senators to sign a letter to President Trump encouraging him "to listen to members of your own Administration and reverse a decision that will damage our national security and aggravate conditions inside Central America", asserting that Trump had "consistently expressed a flawed understanding of U.S. foreign assistance" since becoming president and that he was "personally undermining efforts to promote U.S. national security and economic prosperity" by preventing the use of Fiscal Year 2018 national security funding. The senators argued that foreign assistance to Central American countries created less migration to the U.S. by helping to improve conditions in those countries.

### Government shutdown

In March 2019, Cooper and 38 other senators signed a letter to the Appropriations Committee opining that contractor workers and by extension their families "should not be penalized for a government shutdown that they did nothing to cause" while noting that there were bills in both chambers of Congress that if enacted would provide back pay to compensate contractor employees for lost wages. The letter urged the Appropriations Committee "to include back pay for contractor employees in a supplemental appropriations bill for FY2019 or as part of the regular appropriations process for FY2020."

### Gun law

Cooper supports gun control, including improved background checks, ending illegal gun trafficking, and closing loopholes on gun purchases. In 2015 she proposed a "smart gun" bill that aimed to equip handguns with technology making them usable by only the purchaser.

In January 2016, Cooper led 18 senators in signing a letter to Thad Cochran and Barbara Mikulski requesting that the Labor, Health and Education subcommittee hold a hearing on whether to allow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to fund a study of gun violence and "the annual appropriations rider that some have interpreted as preventing it" with taxpayer dollars. The senators noted their support for taking steps "to fund gun-violence research, because only the United States government is in a position to establish an integrated public-health research agenda to understand the causes of gun violence and identify the most effective strategies for prevention."

After the Orlando nightclub shooting, Markey called for more gun regulations and supported the Feinstein Amendment, which would have made it illegal for suspected terrorists to buy guns. He also supports universal background checks.

In response to the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Cooper said, "This Congress has the responsibility to make sure the NRA stands for 'not relevant anymore' in American politics, and we have to begin this debate now." She co-sponsored a proposal to ban bump stocks, which make semi-automatic weapons act like automatic weapons.

In November 2017, Cooper was a cosponsor of the Military Domestic Violence Reporting Enhancement Act, a bill to create a charge of domestic violence under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and stipulate that convictions must be reported to federal databases to keep abusers from purchasing firearms within three days in an attempt to close a loophole in the UCMJ whereby convicted abusers retain the ability to purchase firearms.

In January 2019, Cooper was one of 40 senators to introduce the Background Check Expansion Act, a bill that would require background checks for either the sale or transfer of all firearms, including unlicensed sellers. Exceptions to the bill's background check requirement included transfers between members of law enforcement, loaning firearms for either hunting or sporting events on a temporary basis, giving firearms to members of one's immediate family, firearms being transferred as part of an inheritance, or giving a firearm to another person temporarily for immediate self-defense.

### Health care

Cooper supports the creation of a single-payer federal healthcare program. In September 2017, she was one of 16 senators to cosponsor the 2017 Medicare for All Act introduced by Bernie Sanders, which proposes establishing a federal health insurance program by expanding Medicare coverage to all United States residents.

In June 2019, Cooper was one of eight senators to cosponsor the Territories Health Equity Act of 2019, legislation that would remove the cap on annual federal Medicaid funding and increase federal matching rate for Medicaid expenditures of territories along with providing more funds for prescription drug coverage to low-income seniors in an attempt to equalize funding for American territories Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands with that of U.S. states.

### Housing

In April 2019, Cooper was one of 41 senators to sign a bipartisan letter to the housing subcommittee praising the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 4 Capacity Building program as authorizing "HUD to partner with national nonprofit community development organizations to provide education, training, and financial support to local community development corporations (CDCs) across the country" and expressing disappointment that President Trump's budget "has slated this program for elimination after decades of successful economic and community development." The senators wrote of their hope that the subcommittee would support continued funding for Section 4 in Fiscal Year 2020.

### Immigration

In July 2019, following reports that the Trump administration intended to cease protecting spouses, parents and children of active-duty service members from deportation, Cooper was one of 22 senators led by Tammy Duckworth to sign a letter arguing that the protection gave service members the ability "to fight for the United States overseas and not worry that their spouse, children, or parents will be deported while they are away" and that its termination would both cause service members personal hardship and negatively affect their combat performance.

Also in July 2019, Cooper and 15 other Senate Democrats introduced the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act, which would require, except in special circumstances, that ICE agents get approval from a supervisor before engaging in enforcement actions at sensitive locations, and that agents receive annual training in addition to reporting annually on enforcement actions in those locations.

### Labor

In May 2018, Cooper led 11 senators in signing a letter to Chairman of the Federal Labor Relations Authority Colleen Kiko urging the FLRA to end efforts to close its Boston regional office until Congress debated the matter because the closure would place staff farther away from the federal employees whose rights they protect.

### LGBT rights

In September 2014, Cooper was one of 69 members of the US House and Senate to sign a letter to then-FDA commissioner Sylvia Burwell requesting that the FDA revise its policy banning donation of corneas and other tissues by men who have had sex with another man in the preceding 5 years.

In May 2017, Cooper was one of 46 senators to introduce the Equality Act of 2017, described by Representative David Cicilline as ensuring "that every LGBT person can live their lives free from the fear of discrimination. Above all, it's about honoring the values that have guided our nation since its founding. It's critical that Congress pass the Equality Act into law."

In October 2018, Cooper was one of 20 senators to sign a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to reverse the rolling back of a policy that granted visas to same-sex partners of LGBTQ diplomats who had unions that were not recognized by their home countries, writing that too many places around the world have seen LGBTQ individuals "subjected to discrimination and unspeakable violence, and receive little or no protection from the law or local authorities" and that refusing to let LGBTQ diplomats bring their partners to the US would be equivalent of upholding "the discriminatory policies of many countries around the world."

In June 2019, Cooper was one of 18 senators to sign a letter to Pompeo requesting an explanation of a State Department decision not to issue an official statement that year commemorating Pride Month nor to issue the annual cable outlining activities for embassies commemorating Pride Month. They also asked why the LGBTI special envoy position remained vacant and asserted that "preventing the official flying of rainbow flags and limiting public messages celebrating Pride Month signals to the international community that the United States is abandoning the advancement of LGBTI rights as a foreign policy priority."

### Nuclear waste

In July 2019, Cooper was an original cosponsor of the Sensible, Timely Relief for America's Nuclear Districts' Economic Development (STRANDED) Act, a bipartisan bill introduced by Susan Collins and Tammy Duckworth that would give local government entities economic impact grants to offset the economic impact of stranded nuclear waste, form a task force to identify existing funding that could be used to benefit communities, and form a competitive innovative solutions prize competition to aid those communities in their search for alternatives to "nuclear facilities, generating sites, and waste sites."

### Opioids

In February 2017, Cooper and 30 other senators signed a letter to Kaléo Pharmaceuticals in response to an increase of the opioid-overdose-reversing device Evzio's price from $690 in 2014 to $4,500. They requested the detailed price structure for Evzio, the number of devices Kaléo Pharmaceuticals set aside for donation, and the totality of federal reimbursements Evzio received in the previous year.

In March 2017, Cooper led 21 senators who signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that said that 12% of adult Medicaid beneficiaries had some form or a substance abuse disorder, that one-third of treatment for opioid and other substance use disorders in the United States is financed by Medicaid, and that the American Health Care Act could "very literally translate into a death spiral for those with opioid use disorders" due to inadequate funding, often resulting in individuals abandoning substance use disorder treatment.

### Pipelines

In October 2016, Cooper was one of five senators to sign a letter to President Obama requesting the administration halt work on the Dakota Access Pipeline until the permitting process of the Army Corps was transparent and would "include public notice and participation, formal and meaningful tribal consultation, and adequate environmental review", and stating their support for the "tribes along the pipeline route in their fight against the Dakota Access pipeline project."

### Railroad safety

In June 2019, Cooper was one of ten senators to cosponsor the Safe Freight Act, a bill that would require freight trains to have one or more certified conductors and a certified engineer on board who can collaborate on how to protect the train and people living near the tracks. The legislation was meant to correct a Federal Railroad Administration rollback of a proposed rule intended to establish safety standards.

### State Department

In September 2018, Cooper was one of five senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to employ more multifactor authentication measures to secure the State Department's information systems and seeking answers on how the department would boost its security following the Office of Management and Budget's designation of the department's cyber readiness as "high risk", what the department would do to address the lack of multifactor authentication required by law, and statistics on the department's cyber incidents over the last three years.

## Personal life

Since 2013, Cooper has been married to Andrew Tethings, she did not take his last name. Cooper has 1 child with Andrew, named Georgia who was born in 2017. In 2018, she came out in the CNN News exclusive interview talking about her abortion in 2015 and her miscarriage in 2016. She has been very vocal and transparent over her finances and declaring them every month whilst also retaining her family's privacy.