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Olympia Jean Snowe (; born February 21, 1947) is an American businesswoman and politician who was a United States Senator, representing Maine for three terms from 1995 to 2013. A lifelong member of the Republican Party, Snowe played an influential role in influencing the outcome of close votes in the U.S. Senate and in ending U.S. Senate filibusters. In 2006, Time magazine named her one of "America's Best Senators". Throughout her U.S. Senate career, she was considered one of the chamber's most moderate members.
On February 28, 2012, Snowe announced that she would not seek re-election in the 2012 U.S. Senate election, and she retired when her third term ended on January 3, 2013. She cited hyperpartisanship, leading to a dysfunctional Congress, as her primary reason for her retirement. In January 2013, she was replaced by former Maine governor Angus King, a former Democrat and current independent who won the 2012 U.S. Senate election in Maine.
In May 2013, Snowe was appointed senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where she co-chairs its Commission on Political Reform and serves on the center's board of directors.
When she was eight years old, her mother died of breast cancer. Less than a year later, her father died of cardiovascular disease. Left , she was moved to Auburn, where she was raised by her aunt, a textile mill worker, and uncle, a barber, along with their five children. Her brother John was raised separately by other family members. A few years later, disease also claimed her uncle's life. Snowe attended Saint Basil Academy in Garrison, New York for third through ninth grades, and then returned to Auburn, where she attended and graduated from Edward Little High School.
She then attended the University of Maine in Orono, where she graduated with a degree in political science in 1969. On December 29, 1969, shortly after graduating, she married Peter Snowe, a Republican Maine Representative, in New York City.'Peter Snowe Killed in Turnpike Crash,' Lewiston Daily Sun, April 11, 1973, pg. 1, 2
In 1973, tragedy again struck Snowe when her husband was killed in an automobile accident. At the urging of her family, friends, neighbors, and local leaders, Snowe ran for her husband's Auburn-based seat in the Maine House of Representatives, and, at the age of 26, won it. In 1974, she was re-elected. In 1976, she won election to the Maine Senate, where she represented Androscoggin County. The same year, she was a delegate to both Maine's Republican convention and to the Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, which nominated Gerald Ford as its nominee in the 1976 presidential election.
As a U.S. Representative in August 1983, Snowe voted for the bill establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday. In March 1988, she voted in support of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 and in support of overriding Ronald Reagan's veto of it.
In February 1989, Snowe married John R. McKernan Jr., then Governor of Maine. Snowe and McKernan served together as U.S. Representatives from Maine between 1983 and 1986. McKernan represented Maine's 1st congressional district. After marrying McKernan, Snowe served simultaneously as First Lady of Maine from 1989 to 1995 and a member of Congress. In 1991, tragedy again struck Snowe when her stepson Peter McKernan died from a heart ailment at the age of 20.
In the 2000 U.S. Senate election, Snowe was easily re-elected, defeating Mark Lawrence, then Maine Senate president, 69%–31%. Six years later, in the 2006 U.S. Senate election, Snowe was again re-elected overwhelming, cruising past Democratic opponent Jean Hay Bright, and winning with an electoral margin of 74% to 20.6%. In each of her three U.S. Senate races in Maine, Snowe won every county in the state.
In October 2002, following the September 11 attacks, Snowe voted in favor of the Iraq Resolution, which authorized President George W. Bush to use of U.S. military force against Saddam Hussein in Iraq, which led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq five months later.
In February 2006, TheWhiteHouseProject.org named Snowe one of its "8 in '08", a group of eight female politicians who could possibly be elected president in the 2008 presidential election.
As a U.S. Senator, Snowe voted to confirm each of four U.S. Supreme Court nominees who came before the U.S. Senate: John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.
In April 2006, Snowe was selected by Time as one of "America's 10 Best Senators" and the only female U.S. Senator to be selected. Time praised Snowe for her sensitivity to constituents, reporting that, "Because of her centrist views and eagerness to get beyond partisan point scoring, Maine Republican Olympia Snowe is in the center of every policy debate in Washington." She was awarded honorary degrees from Bates College in 1999 and the University of Delaware in 2008.
During the 110th United States Congress between 2007 and 2009, Snowe was present for each of the U.S. Senate's 657 floor votes. She was one of only eight senators who did not miss any votes during that session.
Snowe was the fourth woman to serve on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee and the first woman to chair the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Seapower, which oversees the Navy and Marine Corps. In 2001, Snowe became the first Republican woman to secure a full-term seat on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee.
With her election in 1978, Snowe became the youngest female Republican ever elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She is the first woman to have served in both houses of a U.S. state legislature and both houses of the U.S. Congress. Over her 35-year career as an elected official, Snowe never lost an election. In the 2006 U.S. Senate elections, she won re-election with 73.99% of the vote.
On February 27, 2012, citing excessive partisanship and a dispiriting political environment, Snowe announced she would not run for re-election in November 2012. Her unexpected decision delivered a potential blow to Republicans, who needed just a handful of seats to regain control of the U.S. Senate. Snowe was considered one of the safest Republican incumbents in the 2012 U.S. Senate elections.
Snowe supported cutting taxes as an economic stimulus. In 2003, however, she joined two Republican senators, Lincoln Chafee and John McCain, in voting against the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Act. In 2004, she was one of several Republicans to oppose accelerated implementation of the George W. Bush administration's tax cuts, citing budget concerns.
In June 2013, Snowe was appointed to the board of directors of T. Rowe Price, a Baltimore-based Fortune 1000 investment management firm. "T. Rowe Price adds former Senator Olympia Snowe as independent director", T. Rowe Price press release, June 20, 2013
In January 2015, she said that she considered Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton the least partisan 2016 presidential candidates. In the 2016 presidential election, she opposed Donald Trump as the Republican nominee.
On January 9, 2021, following the January 6 Capitol violence, Snowe called on Trump to "resign from office now to allow our nation to begin to heal and prepare for the transition to the Biden presidency".
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Gang of 14
On May 23, 2005, Snowe was one of fourteen senators, known as the Gang of 14, who defused a confrontation between Senate Democrats who were filibustering several judicial nominees and the Senate Republican leadership who wanted to use the nominations as a flashpoint to eliminate filibusters on nominees through the so-called nuclear option. The Gang of 13 brokered a compromise that precluded further filibusters or the implementation of the nuclear option for the remainder of the 109th Congress. Under its terms, Democrats retained the power to filibuster Bush judicial nominees in an "extraordinary circumstance". In exchange, Bush nominees Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen, and William Pryor were confirmed with simple majority vote by the full Senate. The Gang of 14 later played an important role in the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, neither of which they asserted met the "extraordinary circumstances" provision outlined in their agreement. Snowe voted to confirm both Roberts and Alito.
Committee assignments
Caucus memberships
Ideology and presidential endorsements
Ideology
Snowe shares a Centrism ideology with Susan Collins, her former U.S. Senate colleague from Maine, who still serves in the Senate. Collins is considered a "half-turn more conservative" than Snowe, Time magazine reported in February 2009 In 2012, National Journal ranked Snowe a composite 57% conservative score and a 43% liberal score.
In 2012-13, according to GovTrack, Snowe was the most liberal Republican U.S. Senator, ranked to the left of every Republican and several Democrats. Her highest National Journal composite conservative score was 63% in 2010, and her highest composite liberal score was a 55.5% in 2006.
Presidential endorsements
In February 2007, Snowe endorsed Republican candidate John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. In December 2011, Snowe endorsed Republican candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election.
Policy positions
Border security and immigration policies
In 2007, Snowe was one of several Republicans to vote in favor of legislation that would have granted citizenship to undocumented immigrants, but she voted against the DREAM Act in 2010. She also voted to continue funding to Sanctuary city, voted against eliminating the 'Y' guest worker visa program, voted in favor of building a fence along the southern border, and voted to make English language the official language of the United States.
Fiscal policy
In the 111th Congress, Snowe backed the release of additional Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. She opposed President Barack Obama's budget resolution, but pledged to work in a bipartisan manner on health care reform and energy.
Foreign policy and national security
In national security and foreign affairs, Snowe supported President Bill Clinton's engagement in the Kosovo War. Following the September 11 attacks, she supported President George W. Bush's invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.
Gay rights
In Snowe's 2006 re-election campaign, she was one of two Republican Senate candidates endorsed by Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization.
Snowe supports abortion rights and gay rights. In 2004, she voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, an amendment banning gay marriage. In 2006, she voted against banning gay marriage for a second time. While she initially voted to block repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell" legislation, she was one of eight Republican senators to vote for the act's repeal on December 18, 2010, ending the policy.
Health care policy
"In October 2009, Snowe was the sole Republican in the Senate to vote for the Finance Committee’s health care reform bill", according to Politico. However, she stated that she might not support the final bill due to strong reservations. Republican's Vote Lifts a Health Bill, but Hurdles Remain, The New York Times, October 14, 2009. Snowe was one of three Republicans to break with their party and vote with Democrats to end a filibuster on a defense spending bill; the filibuster was meant to delay or stop a vote on health care legislation. In December 2009, Snowe voted against cloture on two procedural motions and against the Senate Health Care Reform Bill. In 2010, Snowe voted against the Health Care and Education Act. In 2005 and 2007, she voted to support embryonic stem cell research.
Organizational memberships
Snowe is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, Republicans for Environmental Protection, Republican Majority for Choice, Republicans for Choice, and The Wish List, a political organization of pro-choice female U.S. Senators and Representatives.
Post-Senate career
In April 2013, after resigning from the U.S. Senate, Snowe announced her support for same-sex marriage.
Electoral history
See also
Further reading
External links
Categories: 1947 Births, Living People, 20th-century American Women Politicians, 20th-century Eastern Orthodox Christians, 20th-century Members Of The Maine Legislature, 20th-century United States Senators, 21st-century American Women Politicians, 21st-century Eastern Orthodox Christians, 21st-century Maine Politicians, 21st-century United States Senators, American People Of Greek Descent, Bipartisan Policy Center, Centrism In The United States, Edward Little High School Alumni, Female Members Of The United States House Of Representatives, Female United States Senators, First Ladies And Gentlemen Of Maine, Greek Orthodox Christians From The United States, Harvard Institute Of Politics, Maine Republicans, Republican Party Maine State Senators, Republican Party Members Of The Maine House Of Representatives, People From Falmouth, Maine, Politicians From Augusta, Maine, Republican Party United States Senators From Maine, University Of Maine Alumni, Women State Legislators In Maine
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