Tom Cotton Born in Dardanelle

Summary

Thomas Bryant Cotton was born on May 13, 1977, in Dardanelle, Arkansas. Raised on his family's cattle farm, he graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School and briefly practiced law before joining the U.S. Army after the September 11 attacks. Cotton served as an infantry officer, including deployments connected with Iraq and Afghanistan, and later worked as a management consultant. He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012 and served one term before winning a U.S. Senate seat in 2014. Cotton was reelected in 2020 and became a prominent Republican voice on national security, immigration, China, military policy, criminal justice, and technology. In 2025, Senate Republicans selected him as chair of the Republican Conference, and he also became chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, placing him in senior party and national-security leadership roles.