U.S. Senate, 1973-1996

After serving three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, Cohen was elected to the U.S. Senate in November of 1978, unseating incumbent Senator William D. Hathaway with 57 percent of the vote. He was re-elected in 1984 and again in 1990, and was a member of the Senate until he became the nation's twentieth Secretary of Defense in January, 1997. Senator Cohen's office in Washington, D.C. was in the Dirksen Building from 1979-1984, and the Hart Building from 1984-1997. Cohen had a large Senatorial staff, which included press secretaries, administrative assistants, legislative assistants, office managers and a personal secretary. Cohen also had six Senate offices in Maine in Augusta, Bangor, Lewiston, Presque Isle, Portland, and Biddeford.

The records in this group are organized into five series which reflect the four basic areas of activity in the Cohen office (administration, legislation, constituent services and press/media), as well as Cohen's personal and political activities. The series are Personal/Political/Official Records (68 boxes), Constituent Services Records (not completely processed), Legislative Records (558), Press Relations/Media Activities Records (114 boxes), and Office Administration Records (5 boxes). The largest series is the legislative one, which includes files related to Cohen's activities on the Governmental Affairs, Armed Services, Aging, Intelligence, Judiciary, and Indian Affairs Committees, as well as his 1987 appointment to the special committee investigating the Iran-contra affair. Other files in the legislative series document Cohen's attention to a broad range of issues, most of which deal with the concerns of his Maine constituents.