Olympia Snowe

Olympia Snowe is the senior US Senator from Maine. She is currently in her third term in the position. She is a Republican. In 2001 she became the first Republican woman to ever have a full-time position on the US Senate Finance Committee. When she was first elected to the US Senate in 1994, she became the first American woman who served in both houses of the US Congress after serving in both houses of a state legislature.http://snowe.senate.gov/bio.htm

Snowe was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's 2nd Congressional District in 1977. She married then-Governor John McKernan in 1989. In 1994, Snowe ran for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and defeated Democratic nominee Tom Andrews in a landslide.http://snowe.senate.gov/bio.htm

Snowe considers herself a moderate Republican. She often votes with the Democratic Party on environmental, abortion, and gay rights issues. The publication Congressional Quarterly commended Snowe in 1999 for her centrist leadership. She is co-chair of the Senate Centrist Coalition (with Democratic Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman). This coalition's purpose is to foster cooperation between Senate Democrats and Republicans.http://snowe.senate.gov/bio.htm

Snowe supported the invasion of Iraq, but afterward she sought to distance herself from former US President George W. Bush. She supports the passage of unemployment extensions.http://www.mpbn.net/News/MaineHeadlineNews/tabid/968/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3479/ItemId/11812/Default.aspx http://snowe.senate.gov/bio.htm

Olympia Snowe's parents both died before she reached the age of ten. She was raised by her aunt and uncle, and in 1969, she graduated from the University of Maine with a Bachelor's in Political Science. After graduation, Olympia married Peter Snowe, who was then a Republican state legislator. In 1973, Peter Snowe died in a car accident and Olympia ran for, and won, his seat in the Maine House of Representatives.http://snowe.senate.gov/bio.htm