Actor and former Tennessee Republican Sen. Fred Thompson ended his five-year run playing District Attorney Arthur Branch on NBC's Law and Order with an aim to carry on his political career in the White House.

Thompson entered political office in 1994 when he was elected to finish the last two years of former Vice President Al Gore's Senate term in Tennessee and was then re-elected in 1996 to a full term, both times with landslide victories. While in office, he was considered a reliably conservative vote.

Before the Senate, Thompson served as an assistant U.S. attorney and was appointed minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973.

Politically, Thompson adamantly supports the Federalist ideals of the country's founding fathers.

"Our government, under our Constitution, was established upon the principles of Federalism -- that the federal government would have limited enumerated powers and the rest would be left to the states," he said in a Townhall.com article. "Citizens of our various states have different views as to how traditional state responsibilities should be handled. This way, states compete with each other to attract people and businesses -- and that is a good thing."

Since the mid-1980s, Thompson has worked as a character actor, performing in 18 films, including "The Hunt for Red October" and "Die Hard 2: Die Harder" in the 1990s and "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" in 2005.

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