Susan Margaret Collins is an American politician who currently serves as the senior United States Senator from Maine. A member of the Republican Party, Collins has served in the Senate since 1997, and has served as the Chairwoman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging since 2015 and previously chaired the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs from 2003 to 2007. She is considered a moderate Republican Senator. She also is known for her long consecutive voting streak, which reached 6,000 votes in September 2015. She is the current dean of Maine's congressional delegation.
Born in Caribou, Maine, Collins is a graduate of St. Lawrence University. Beginning her career as a staff assistant for Senator William Cohen in 1975, Collins later became the staff director of the Oversight of Government Management Subcommittee of the Committee on Governmental Affairs in 1981. She was then appointed as the Commissioner of the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation by Governor John R. McKernan, Jr. in 1987. In 1992 she was appointed by President George H. W. Bush as the director of the Small Business Administration's regional office in Boston. Staying in Massachusetts, Collins became that state's Deputy State Treasurer in 1993.
After moving back to Maine in 1994, Collins became the Republican nominee for governor in the 1994 general election. Becoming the first woman to become the nominee of a major party for Governor of Maine, Collins finished third in a four way race with 23% of the vote. After her bid for governor in 1994, Collins became the founding director of the Center for Family Business at Husson University. Collins was first elected to the Senate in 1996. She has been re-elected three times, in 2002, 2008, and 2014. After former New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte lost reelection in 2016, Collins became the only Republican in the U.S. Senate currently representing a state in New England.
Answering: "How will his [John McCain's] support for the war affect his presidential chances?" Feb. 5, 2007
‘I Hope I’m Wrong’, Newsweek, February 5, 2007 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16993944/site/newsweek/,
