Olympia Snowe | |
|---|---|
 Snowe in October 2009 | |
| Chair of theSenate Small Business Committee | |
| In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007 | |
| Preceded by | John Kerry |
| Succeeded by | John Kerry |
| United States Senator fromMaine | |
| In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | George Mitchell |
| Succeeded by | Angus King |
| First Lady of Maine | |
| In role February 24, 1989 – January 5, 1995 | |
| Governor | John McKernan |
| Preceded by | Constance Brennan |
| Succeeded by | Mary Herman |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMaine's2nd district | |
| In office January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1995 | |
| Preceded by | Bill Cohen |
| Succeeded by | John Baldacci |
| Member of theMaine Senate from the 12th district | |
| In office January 5, 1977 – January 3, 1979 | |
| Preceded by | Elmer Berry |
| Succeeded by | Barbara Trafton |
| Member of theMaine House of Representatives from the 4th district | |
| In office January 1, 1975 – January 5, 1977 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Barbara Trafton |
| Member of theMaine House of Representatives from theAuburn district | |
| In office May 23, 1973 – January 1, 1975 | |
| Preceded by | Peter Snowe |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Olympia Jean Bouchles (1947-02-21)February 21, 1947 (age 78) Augusta, Maine, U.S. |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouses | |
| Education | University of Maine (BA) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | Official website |
Snowe opposing the closure ofNaval Air Station Brunswick at a2005 BRAC hearing. Recorded August 10, 2005 | |
Olympia Jean Snowe (née Bouchles; born February 21, 1947) is an American businesswoman and politician who was aUnited States Senator, representingMaine for three terms from 1995 to 2013. A lifelong member of theRepublican Party, Snowe played an influential role in influencing the outcome of close votes in the U.S. Senate and in endingU.S. Senate filibusters.[1][2] In 2006,Time magazine named her one of "America's Best Senators".[3] Throughout her U.S. Senate career, she was considered one of the chamber's most moderate members.[4]
On February 28, 2012, Snowe announced that she would not seek re-election in the2012 U.S. Senate election, and she retired when her third term ended on January 3, 2013.[5] She cited hyperpartisanship, leading to a dysfunctionalCongress, as her primary reason for her retirement. In January 2013, she was replaced by formerMaine governorAngus King, a formerDemocrat and current independent who won the2012 U.S. Senate election in Maine.
In May 2013, Snowe was appointed senior fellow at theBipartisan Policy Center inWashington, D.C., where she co-chairs its Commission on Political Reform and serves on the center's board of directors.[6]
Snowe was bornOlympia Jean Bouchles inAugusta, Maine, on February 21, 1947, the daughter of Georgia (née Goranites) and George John Bouchles. Her father emigrated to the United States fromSparta, Greece, and her maternal grandparents wereGreek.[7][8] She is a member of theGreek Orthodox Church.[9]
When she was eight years old, her mother died ofbreast cancer. Less than a year later, her father died ofcardiovascular disease. Leftorphaned, she was moved toAuburn, where she was raised by her aunt, atextile 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 attendedSaint Basil Academy inGarrison, New York for third through ninth grades, and then returned to Auburn, where she attended and graduated fromEdward Little High School.
She then attended theUniversity of Maine inOrono, where she graduated with aBachelor of Arts degree inpolitical science in 1969. On December 29, 1969, shortly after graduating, she marriedPeter Snowe, aRepublicanMaine Representative, in New York City.[10]
Snowe entered politics and rose quickly, winning a seat on the Board of Voter Registration and then working forU.S. Representative and laterU.S. Senator andU.S. Secretary of DefenseWilliam Cohen.
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'sAuburn-based seat in theMaine House of Representatives, and, at the age of 26, won it. In 1974, she was re-elected. In 1976, she won election to theMaine Senate, where she representedAndroscoggin County. The same year, she was a delegate to both Maine'sRepublican convention and to theRepublican National Convention inKansas City, Missouri, which nominatedGerald Ford as its nominee in the1976 presidential election.[11][12]
In 1978, Snowe ran for theU.S. House of Representatives and won. From 1979 to 1995, she representedMaine's 2nd congressional district, which included most of the northern two-thirds of Maine, includingBangor and her hometown ofAuburn. As a U.S. Representative, Snowe served on theHouse Budget andHouse Foreign Affairs committees.[13]
As a U.S. Representative in August 1983, Snowe voted for thebill establishingMartin Luther King Jr. Day as afederal holiday. In March 1988, she voted in support of theCivil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 and in support of overridingPresident Reagan's veto of it.[14][15][16]
.jpg)
In February 1989, Snowe marriedJohn R. McKernan Jr., thenGovernor of Maine. Snowe and McKernan served together as U.S. Representatives from Maine between 1983 and 1986. McKernan representedMaine's 1st congressional district. After marrying McKernan, Snowe served simultaneously as First Lady of Maine from 1989 to 1995 and a member ofCongress. In 1991, tragedy again struck Snowe when her stepson Peter McKernan died from a heart ailment at the age of 20.[17]
In1994, after thenU.S. Senate Majority LeaderGeorge J. Mitchell chose not to seek re-election to theU.S. Senate, Snowe immediately declared her candidacy for the seat. In the general election, Snowe facedDemocratic nomineeTom Andrews, a U.S. Representative then representingMaine's 1st congressional district. Snowe won election to the U.S. Senate, defeating Andrews 60–36% and carrying every county in the state as part of a nationalRepublican election sweep in which Republicans captured both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate for the first time since 1954.
In the2000 U.S. Senate election, Snowe was easily re-elected, defeatingMark Lawrence, thenMaine Senate president, 69%–31%. Six years later, in the2006 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%.[18] In each of her three U.S. Senate races in Maine, Snowe won every county in the state.
_the_Honorable_Dr._Donald_C._Winter%2c_meet_in_the_boardroom_at_Supervisor_Shipbuilding%2c_Bath_Iron_Works.jpg)
In February 1999, as aU.S. Senator, Snowe was an important voice during the U.S. Senate'simpeachment trial of then-PresidentBill Clinton. She and fellow Maine SenatorSusan Collins sponsored a finding of fact motion that would have allowed the Senate to vote separately on the charges facing Clinton and remedy for those charges. When the motion failed, Snowe and Collins voted to acquit Clinton, arguing that his perjury did not warrant his removal from office. Her occasional breaks with theBush administration drew attacks fromconservativeRepublicans, theClub for Growth, andConcerned Women for America, leading to her being labelled aRepublican In Name Only, or RINO.
In October 2002, following theSeptember 11 attacks, Snowe voted in favor of theIraq Resolution, which authorizedPresidentGeorge W. Bush to use ofU.S. military force againstSaddam Hussein in Iraq, which led to the2003 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 electedpresident in the2008 presidential election.[21]
As a U.S. Senator, Snowe voted to confirm each of fourU.S. Supreme Court nominees who came before the U.S. Senate:John Roberts,Samuel Alito,Sonia Sotomayor, andElena Kagan.
In April 2006, Snowe was selected byTime as one of "America's 10 Best Senators" and the only female U.S. Senator to be selected.[22]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 fromBates College in 1999 and theUniversity of Delaware in 2008.
During the110th United States Congress between 2007 and 2009, Snowe was present for each of the U.S. Senate's 657 floor votes.[23] She was one of only eight senators who did not miss any votes during that session.[23]
Snowe was the fourth woman to serve on theU.S. Senate Armed Services Committee and the first woman to chair theU.S. Senate Subcommittee on Seapower, which oversees theNavy andMarine Corps. In 2001, Snowe became the first Republican woman to secure a full-term seat on theU.S. Senate Finance Committee.
With her election in 1978, Snowe became the youngest female Republican ever elected to theU.S. House of Representatives. She is the first woman to have served in both houses of aU.S. state legislature and both houses of theU.S. Congress. Over her 35-year career as an elected official, Snowe never lost an election. In the2006 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 the2012 U.S. Senate elections.[24]
On May 23, 2005, Snowe was one of fourteen senators, known as theGang of 14, who defused aconfrontation between Senate Democrats who werefilibustering 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-callednuclear option. The Gang of 14 brokered a compromise that precluded further filibusters or the implementation of the nuclear option for the remainder of the109th Congress. Under its terms, Democrats retained the power to filibuster Bush judicial nominees in an "extraordinary circumstance". In exchange, Bush nomineesJanice Rogers Brown,Priscilla Owen, andWilliam 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 JusticeJohn Roberts and Associate JusticeSamuel Alito, neither of which they asserted met the "extraordinary circumstances" provision outlined in their agreement. Snowe voted to confirm both Roberts and Alito.[25]
Snowe shares acentrist ideology withSusan 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[26] In 2012,National Journal ranked Snowe a composite 57%conservative score and a 43%liberal score.[27]In 2012-13, according toGovTrack, Snowe was the most liberalRepublican U.S. Senator, ranked to the left of every Republican and several Democrats.[28] Her highestNational Journal composite conservative score was 63% in 2010, and her highest composite liberal score was a 55.5% in 2006.[27]
In February 2007, Snowe endorsed Republican candidateJohn McCain in the2008 presidential election.[29] In December 2011, Snowe endorsed Republican candidateMitt Romney in the2012 presidential election.[30]
In 2007, Snowe was one of several Republicans to vote in favor oflegislation that would have granted citizenship to undocumented immigrants,[31] but she voted against theDREAM Act in 2010.[32] She also voted to continue funding tosanctuary cities, voted against eliminating the 'Y' guest worker visa program, voted in favor of building a fence along the southern border, and voted to makeEnglish the official language of the United States.[33]
In the111th Congress, Snowe backed the release of additionalTroubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds and theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act. She opposed PresidentBarack Obama's budget resolution, but pledged to work in a bipartisan manner onhealth care reform and energy.[34]
Snowe supported cutting taxes as an economic stimulus. In 2003, however, she joined two Republican senators,Lincoln Chafee andJohn McCain, in voting against the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act. In 2004, she was one of several Republicans to oppose accelerated implementation of theGeorge W. Bush administration's tax cuts, citing budget concerns.[35]
In national security and foreign affairs, Snowe supported PresidentBill Clinton's engagement in theKosovo War. Following theSeptember 11 attacks, she supported PresidentGeorge W. Bush's invasions ofAfghanistan in 2001 andIraq in 2003.
In Snowe's 2006 re-election campaign, she was one of two Republican Senate candidates endorsed byHuman Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization.[36] Snowe supportsabortion rights andgay rights. In 2004, she voted against theFederal Marriage Amendment, an amendment banning gay marriage.[37] In 2006, she voted against banning gay marriage for a second time.[38] 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 theact's repeal on December 18, 2010, ending the policy.[39]
"In October 2009, Snowe was the sole Republican in the Senate to vote for the Finance Committee’s health care reform bill", according toPolitico.[40] However, she stated that she might not support the final bill due to strong reservations.[41] 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.[42] In December 2009, Snowe voted against cloture on two procedural motions and against theSenate Health Care Reform Bill. In 2010, Snowe voted against theHealth Care and Education Act.[43] In 2005 and 2007, she voted to support embryonicstem cell research.
Snowe is a member of theRepublican Main Street Partnership,Republicans for Environmental Protection,Republican Majority for Choice,Republicans for Choice, andThe Wish List, a political organization of pro-choice female U.S. Senators and Representatives.[40]
In April 2013, after retiring from the U.S. Senate, Snowe announced her support forsame-sex marriage.[44]
In June 2013, Snowe was appointed to the board of directors ofT. Rowe Price, aBaltimore-basedFortune 1000 investment management firm.[45]
In January 2015, she said that she consideredJeb Bush andHillary Clinton the least partisan 2016 presidential candidates.[46] In the2016 presidential election, she opposedDonald Trump as theRepublican nominee.[47]
On January 9, 2021, following theJanuary 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".[48]
 | This section of abiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Olympia Snowe" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2026) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Olympia Snowe (incumbent) | 405,596 | 74.01% | ||
| Democratic | Jean Hay Bright | 113,131 | 20.59% | ||
| Independent | William H. Slavick | 26,222 | 5.37% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Olympia Snowe (incumbent) | 437,689 | 68.94% | ||
| Democratic | Mark Lawrence | 197,183 | 31.06% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Olympia Snowe | 308,244 | 60.24% | ||
| Democratic | Tom Andrews | 186,042 | 36.36% | ||
| Independent | Plato Truman | 17,205 | 3.36% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Olympia Snowe (incumbent) | 153,022 | 49.13% | ||
| Democratic | Patrick K. McGowan | 130,824 | 42.01% | ||
| Green | Jonathan K. Carter | 27,526 | 8.84% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Olympia Snowe (incumbent) | 121,704 | 51.02% | ||
| Democratic | Patrick K. McGowan | 116,798 | 48.97% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Olympia Snowe (incumbent) | 167,226 | 66.17% | ||
| Democratic | Kenneth P. Hayes | 85,346 | 33.77% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Olympia Snowe (incumbent) | 148,770 | 77.32% | ||
| Democratic | Richard R. Charette | 43,614 | 22.67% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Olympia Snowe (incumbent) | 192,166 | 75.72% | ||
| Democratic | Chipman C. Bull | 57,347 | 22.60% | ||
| Constitution | Kenneth E. Stoddard | 4,242 | 1.67% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Olympia Snowe (incumbent) | 136,075 | 66.65% | ||
| Democratic | James Patrick Dunleavy | 68,086 | 33.35% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Olympia Snowe (incumbent) | 186,406 | 78.50% | ||
| Democratic | Harold L. Silverman | 51,026 | 21.49% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Olympia Snowe | 87,939 | 50.82% | ||
| Democratic | Markham J. Gartley | 70,691 | 40.85% | ||
| Independent | Frederick W. Whittaker | 8,035 | 4.64% | ||
| Independent | Eddie Shurtleff | 1,923 | 1.11% | ||
| Independent | Robert H. Burmeister | 1,653 | 0.96% | ||
| Independent | Margaret E. Cousins | 1,573 | 0.91% | ||
| Independent | Robert L. Cousins | 1,223 | 0.71% | ||
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMaine's 2nd congressional district 1979–1995 | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by Constance Brennan | First Lady of Maine 1989–1995 | Succeeded by Mary Herman |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromMaine (Class 1) 1994,2000,2006 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Maine 1995–2013 Served alongside:William Cohen,Susan Collins | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Small Business Committee 2003–2007 | Succeeded by John Kerry |
| Ranking Member of the Small Business Committee 2007–2013 | Succeeded by | |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Senator | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Senator | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Senator |
| Select Committee (1950–1981) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Full Committee (1981–) | ||
| Class 1 | | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 2 | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
