Mo Cowan
29th United States Senator from Massachusetts (Class 2)
William Maurice "Mo" Cowan (born April 4, 1969) is an American politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts from February to July 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as legal counsel and chief of staff to Governor Deval Patrick. Patrick appointed him on an interim basis to fill the vacancy left by fellow Democrat John Kerry, who resigned to become U.S. Secretary of State.
Cowan declined to run in the 2013 special election to complete the remainder of Kerry's term. He was succeeded by fellow Democrat Ed Markey. Cowan was the eighth African-American U.S. Senator and the second from Massachusetts after Edward Brooke. He was one of three African-American U.S. senators in the 113th Congress, along with Republican Senator Tim Scott from South Carolina and Democrat Cory Booker from New Jersey, although he did not serve alongside Booker, who took office on October 31, 2013.
Early life and education
Cowan was born on April 4, 1969, in rural Yadkinville, North Carolina, the son of a machinist and a seamstress. His father died when he was 16 years old.
Cowan graduated from Forbush High School.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3915426. VIAF identifies the subject as 2551157470197122640007. The Library of Congress control number is n2019068195. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1969 and 2013.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mo Cowan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.