At age 29, 1965, Cohen was elected to City Council and was City Council President from 1967 to 1969. He supported long range residential street paving despite holding the endorsements of the
Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), the Republican party, and of President
Richard Nixon. Cohen moved to Washington, D.C., and served as a Special Assistant to the Director of the
Peace Corps,
Washington D.C. In the 1970s, Cohen served on the Minneapolis Planning Commission for four years. The newspapers nevertheless exposed Cohen, who lost his job with the campaign and sued
Star Tribune owner
Cowles Media Company. The trial court found the defendants liable for $200,000 in compensatory damages. The case eventually went before the
Supreme Court of the United States in 1991, which decided 5–4 in
Cohen v. Cowles Media Co. that the First Amendment did not preclude such a cause of action, but left other issues of state law to the Minnesota courts. During Cohen's time on the commission, he also supported Plain Language Charter Reform. Cohen announced his candidacy on June 18, 2013, for Minneapolis Mayor in the
2013 election, and finished in seventh place out of 35 candidates. Dan Cohen died April 4, 2024, at age 87. == Personal life ==