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Former longtime U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran died early Thursday morning in Oxford, according to his former congressional office. He was 81.
Cochran was first elected to the Senate in 1978, becoming the first Republican in more than 100 years to win a statewide election in Mississippi. He was the 10th-longest-serving senator in U.S. history. Cochran previously served three terms in the House of Representatives, from 1973-1978, before winning an election to replace longtime Sen. James Eastland, who retired.
Cochran, a Republican, was re-elected in 2014 to a seventh six-year term that began in January 2015. He served as chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, a post he had held briefly in the mid-2000s. He resigned last year due to health concerns.