Tedra Cobb has lived in Northern New York for over 30 years, where she married her husband, Scott, and raised her two children. Much of her work has focused on improving access to quality healthcare. After graduating from SUNY Potsdam in 1989, she worked at Riverview Correctional Facility as a Spanish-speaking corrections counselor and became a volunteer firefighter. She then worked for North Country AIDS Outreach, providing HIV/AIDS testing and education in rural communities. In 1999, she started a community health agency through the St. Lawrence Health Initiative to provide access to critical health screenings and treatment. She grew the organization during her time there, securing hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding and expanding access to health care to thousands of Northern New Yorkers.

In 2002, Cobb secured a seat on the St. Lawrence County Legislature by winning a long-shot campaign against an entrenched incumbent. She was not only elected against the odds; she was re-elected to a second term. As a legislator, some of her most significant achievements included authorship and passage of substantial ethics reform and a successful initiative to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Her ethics work earned her an appointment to the NYS Committee on Open Government, where she worked to improve local government’s transparency and openness to constituents.

Health care is a passion for Cobb not only because she has spent a large portion of her career working on expanding access to health care, but because it is deeply personal.  Cobb is running for Congress to protect  health insurance for millions of families, prevent the rise in cost of prescription drugs, and prevent insurance companies from discriminating those who have pre-existing conditions.