Jerome Cochran

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Jerome Cochran, born in Saigon on November 17, 1971, is a Tennessee politician.^[1]^[2] He was elected as a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives to the 103rd and 104th General Assembly for the 4th District, which encompasses the entirety of Carter County. He was formerly a member of the Children and Family Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Domestic Relations Committee, the Constitutional Protections Subcommittee, and the Civil Practice & Procedure Subcommittee.

Jerome Cochran received a B.A at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and later earned a J.D. after attending the Regent University School of Law that was started up by 700 Club founder Pat Robertson.

Cochran was admitted to the Tennessee Bar Association and works in Elizabethton as an attorney with the law offices of David Crockett Attorney-At-Law.

In the 2004 Carter County Republican Primary, he ran against John B. Holsclaw, Sr., a former tax assessor for Carter County, and was re-elected with 3,942 votes over Holsclaw's 2,089. He later ran unopposed in the subsequent 2004 general election.

Among the 2006 legislation sponsored by Cochran in the Tennessee General Assembly was HB2921 authorizing (upon passage) "...the display, in county and municipal public buildings..., of replicas of historical documents and writings" including the Ten Commandments religious displays found contrary to the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court affirmation of McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. ^[3]

Cochran introduced HB2921 in the Tennessee House Constitutional Protections subcommittee^[4] --- of which he was a standing member --- and his HB2921 legislation died peacefully within subcommittee. ^[5]

Cochran was defeated by challenger Kent Williams of Elizabethton during the August 2006 Republican Primary in Carter County. Williams cited the former representative's failure toward bring state tax dollars back into Carter County, stalled state highway and park projects within both Elizabethton and Carter County, and Cochran's legislative assistance heavily favoring special interest groups, all as valid reasons for Carter County voters not to return him to the Tennessee General Assembly.^[6]