Cotton, Tom, 1977

Thomas Bryant Cotton (born May 13, 1977) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States senator for Arkansas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2015. After graduating from Harvard College in 1998 and Harvard Law School in 2002, Cotton worked as a federal clerk for a year and as an associate at two Washington, D.C., law firms before enlisting in the U.S. Army in January 2005. He was commissioned as an infantry officer in June and rose to the rank of captain before being honorably discharged in 2009. He served tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and at Fort Myer (Arlington, Virginia), and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Combat Infantryman Badge. Cotton was elected as the U.S. representative for Arkansas's 4th congressional district in 2012 and to the Senate at age 37 in 2014, defeating two-term Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor.