Olympia Snowe

Olympia Snowe

Olympia Snowe Jean (* 21st February 1947 in Augusta , Maine ) is an American politician of the Republican Party . She represented the US state of Maine in the United States Senate from 1995 to 2013 .

Life

Snowe graduated from the University of Maine in 1969 with a degree in political science. She is a second married to John McKernan , a former governor of Maine. As the daughter of Greek immigrants, she is a member of the Holy Trinity Greek Church in Lewiston .

politics

Snowe is a member of the Republican Party . After initially working for Congressman and later Secretary of Defense William Cohen , she was elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1973 . In 1976 she moved to the Maine Senate and stayed there until 1978.

In 1978 she was elected to the United States House of Representatives, of which she was a member until 1995. In 1994 Snowe won the Maine Senatorial seat with 60% of the vote and was re-elected in 2000 with 69%. In the 2006 congressional elections , she was able to defend her seat with 74% of the vote against the Democrat Jean Hay Bright and the independent candidate Bill Slavick . She is a member of the following Senate committees: Committee on Intelligence ; Commerce, Science and Transport Committee ; Committee on Finance ; Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship .

Snowe is considered a moderate Republican. Together with her co-senator from Maine, Susan Collins , she was considered the most liberal member of her faction: No other Republican senator voted with the Democrats as often as she did. Among other things, she voted for the Dodd – Frank Act and supported President Barack Obama's nominees for the Supreme Court , Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan .

In February 2012, Snowe announced that he would not run again for her seat in the November congressional elections . The reason she cited was the increasing polarization within the Senate, which made constructive work increasingly difficult. The politician, who is extremely popular in her state, was a clear favorite for the elections.

After their rejection, the Democrats hoped to win a seat in the New England state , which is one of their electoral strongholds. But her successor was the independent candidate Angus King .

Web links

Commons : Olympia Snowe  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Olympia Snowe in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ USA Today: Maine GOP Sen. Snowe's retirement makes way for Democrats (February 29, 2012)
2. ^ Dapd: Elections: Republicans defend majority in the House of Representatives. In: welt.de . November 7, 2012, accessed October 7, 2018 .