U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell commemorated Sen. Thad Cochran’s 10,000th vote in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, saying that “the Senate’s a better and more civil place because of him.”

“Last Tuesday, Thad cast his 10,000th vote here in the Senate. And in typical fashion, we didn’t hear a whole lot about it,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “As Thad once told a reporter, That’s just the way I was brought up: to believe you don’t have to toot your own horn too much. Always humble, Thad’s the perfect embodiment of the Southern gentleman.”

McConnell then explained Cochran’s rise to his Senate seat, becoming the first Mississippi Republican in more than a century to win a statewide office.

“The 10,000 vote club is sort of like the 500 home run club in baseball,” McConnell said.