Tom Cotton

Thomas Bryant Cotton (May 13, 1977-September 4, 2056) was an incumbent Republican Senator of Arkansas from 2015-2030 and the 46th and final President of the United States from 2030-2033 succeeding the death of President Andrew Cuomo in the Siege of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Cotton was born in Dardanelle, Arkansas and graduated from the local public high school in 1995. After attending Harvard University, eventually earning a Juris Doctor in 2002 after a brief interruption at Claremont Graduate University. He worked in both public and private law practice before joining the US Army, leading him to Iraq in 2006 and Afghanistan in 2008. Cotton intermittenly worked on his family ranch, returned to US Army Reserve status, and acted as a representative in the House from 2012-2015 after clinching an election in the Arkansas 4th Congressional District from Gene Jeffress. Cotton voted along party lines, and due to strong connections with Republican establishment figures like John McCain and Mitt Romney, he won an Arkansas Senate seat in 2015. Cotton came under criticism for his leading role in the Iran Nuclear Letter, an attempted communication with Iranian leaders sidestepping President Obama, but the faith of his Republican constituency was unshaken. He held his position until 2030, when a promise of 'return to normalcy' resulted in a landslide win in the 2030 emergency presidential election. Cotton won every state aside from Hawaii and Alaska, and assumed office in September after three months of provisional government.

Though Cotton had inspired a political furor during the election, faith in the Federal Government was nonexistent following the Cuomo regime, and quasi-independent State Governments dominated the political scene. With the presence of large state militias, Cotton was unwilling to endanger heartland security by committing the US Military against local independence movements, losing New England in the Secession Act of 2033 and the rest of the splintering USA throughout the next eight months. Though nominally remaining US President until 2034 in the heartland rump-state dubbed 'the Federals', Cotton is considered to be the final president of the union, as historians place its end at 2033.

Cotton retired from public life after his single-term tenure, unable to return to his family farm. He died of heart failure in 2056 at age 79.