Susan Margaret Collins is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator for Maine. Collins was the first female major-party nominee for Governor of Maine in 1994, finishing third in a four-way race with 23% of the vote. She is described as a moderate Republican and therefore often a pivotal vote in the U.S. Senate.
About Susan Collins in brief
Susan Margaret Collins is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator for Maine. A Republican, she has represented Maine in the Senate since 1997. Collins was the first female major-party nominee for Governor of Maine in 1994, finishing third in a four-way race with 23% of the vote. She is described as a moderate Republican and therefore often a pivotal vote in the U.S. Senate. Collins is the first program delegate elected to the Senate and currently holds the seat once held by Margaret Chase Smith, also a Republican. Her father, a decorated veteran of World War II, also served in the Maine Legislature: with one term in the House, and four in theSenate. Her mother was born in Barrancabermeja, Colombia, to American parents. Collins has English and Irish ancestry. She was born and raised in Caribou, Maine, where her family operates a lumber business established by her great-great- great-grandfather, Samuel W. Collins, in 1844. She graduated from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, with a bachelor’s degree in government in 1975. Collins worked as a legislative assistant to U. S. Representative, and later U. s. Senator William Cohen from 1975 to 1987. In 1987, Collins joined the cabinet of Governor John R. McKernan Jr. as Commissioner of the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation. In 1992 she was appointed by President George H. W. Bush as director of the Small Business Administration’s regional office in Boston. In 1996, she announced her candidacy for the seat being vacated by her former boss, William Cohen, who retired to become United States Secretary of Defense under President Clinton.
She has been reelected in 2002, 2008, 2014, and 2020, and is a former chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. She served in this post until December 1994, when she became the founding executive director of The Center for Family Business at Husson College in Bangor, Maine. Collins won an eight-way Republican primary in the 1994 gubernatorial election, becoming the first woman to be nominated by a major party for the position. She lost the general election, receiving 23% of the vote and placing third behind Democrat Joseph E Brennan and Independent Joseph Brennan. In December 2014, Collins announced she would not be seeking re-election to the United States Senate for a second time. She announced her decision to step down from the Senate in January 2015. She continues to serve as a member of the Maine House of Representatives, where she is a co-chair of the Ways and Means Committee and the House Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. She also serves on the Senate Special Committee on Aging and the Senate Select Committee on Governmental and Homeland Security. Collins’ husband, Donald F. Collins Jr., served as mayor of Caribou from 1988 to 1994 and served on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court from 1973 to 1984. He served as Maine’s Supreme Court Justice from 1987 to 1988.
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