Olympia Snowe

Official photo of Representative Snowe in 1980

Snowe was born Olympia Jean Bouchles in Augusta, Maine, the daughter of Georgia (née Goranites) and George John Bouchles. Her father emigrated to the United States from Sparti, Greece, and her maternal grandparents were also Greek.[9][10] She is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.[11]

Snowe's early life had its share of tragedies. When she was eight years old, her mother died of breast cancer, and less than a year later, her father died of heart disease. Orphaned, she was moved to Auburn, to be raised by her aunt and uncle, a textile mill worker and a barber, respectively, along with their five children. Her brother John was raised separately by other family members. Within a few years, disease would also claim her uncle's life. Snowe attended St. Basil's Academy in Garrison, New York from the third grade to the ninth. One of her teachers was Athena Hatziemmanuel, a notable Greek-American educator at the school. Returning to Auburn, she attended Edward Little High School before entering the University of Maine in Orono, from which she earned a degree in Political Science (1969). Shortly after graduation, Bouchles married her fiancé, Republican state legislator Peter T. Snowe, on December 29, 1969, in New York City.[12]

State Senator Snowe

Snowe entered politics and rose quickly, winning a seat on the Board of Voter Registration and working for Congressman (later U.S. Senator and U.S. Secretary of Defense) William Cohen. Tragedy struck Snowe again in 1973, when her husband was killed in an automobile accident. At the urging of family, friends, neighbors and local leaders, Snowe ran for her husband's Auburn-based seat in the Maine House of Representatives at the age of 26 and won. She was re-elected to the House in 1974, and, in 1976, won election to the Maine Senate, representing Androscoggin County. That same year, she was a delegate to both the state and national Republican conventions.

Snowe was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978 and represented Maine's 2nd Congressional District from 1979 to 1995. The district included most of the northern two-thirds of the state, including Bangor and her hometown of Auburn. She served as a member of the Budget and International Relations Committees. Snowe voted for the bill establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday in August 1983 and the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 in March 1988 (as well as to override President Reagan's veto).[13][14][15]

Snowe married John R. McKernan, Jr., then Governor of Maine, in February 1989. Snowe and John McKernan served together in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 1986, McKernan representing the 1st District. While Snowe was First Lady of Maine from 1989 to 1995, she served as a member of Congress of the United States.

Tragedy struck Snowe once more in 1991 when her stepson Peter McKernan died from a heart ailment at the age of 20.

Snowe meeting with sailors returning from Iraq, at Maine's Naval Air Station Brunswick

Snowe shares a centrist ideology with Susan Collins, her former colleague in the Senate from Maine, who still serves in the chamber. Collins is considered a "half-turn more conservative" than Snowe.[21] Snowe supports abortion rights and gay rights, and though she previously voted to block the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell", she was one of eight Republican senators to vote for the act's repeal on December 18, 2010, ending the policy.[22] In her 2006 re-election campaign, she was one of two Republican Senate candidates endorsed by the prominent gay rights organization the Human Rights Campaign (the other was Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, who became a Democrat in 2013 and a Libertarian in 2019).[23] In 2005 she was labeled one of the top ten RINOs, viewed as insufficiently conservative, by the conservative magazine, Human Events.[24] According to GovTrack, Snowe was the most liberal Republican senator in 2012–13 being placed by GovTrack's analysis to the left of every Republican and several Democrats.[25] In 2012, the non-partisan National Journal gave Snowe a composite 57% conservative score and a 43% liberal score.[26]

Snowe supported both President Clinton's involvement in Kosovo and President George W. Bush's invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq. On fiscal issues, she has voiced support for cutting taxes as economic stimulus, although she joined fellow Republican senators Lincoln Chafee and John McCain in voting against the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. In 2004, she opposed the accelerated implementation of the Bush tax cuts citing budget concerns and she was joined by Senators Collins, McCain, and Chafee.[27]

Snowe and Chair Mary Landrieu address the Small Business Committee

With fellow Maine Senator Susan Collins

Snowe is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership and supports stem cell research. She is also a member of Republicans for Environmental Protection, the Republican Majority for Choice, Republicans for Choice and The Wish List (Women In the Senate and House), a group of pro-choice Republican women. Her highest composite conservative score according to the National Journal was a 63% in 2010 and her highest composite liberal score was a 55.5% in 2006.[26] She voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, an amendment aimed at banning gay marriage, in 2004.[28] She voted against banning gay marriage in 2006 for a second time.[29] In 2005 and 2007, she voted to support embryonic stem-cell research.[30] In 2008, Snowe endorsed Republican candidate John McCain for President of the United States.[31]

In the 111th Congress, Snowe backed the release of additional Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. While she opposed President Obama's budget resolution, she pledged to work in a bipartisan manner on the issues of health care reform and energy.[32]

In 2007, Olympia Snowe was among the Republicans who voted in favor of the McCain-Kennedy bill to give citizenship to undocumented immigrants.[33] However, she voted against the DREAM Act in 2010.[34] She also voted to continue funding to 'sanctuary cities,' voted against eliminating the 'Y' guestworker visa program, but she also voted in favor of building a fence along the southern border and voted to make English the official language of the United States.[35]

"In October 2009, Snowe was the sole Republican in the Senate to vote for the Finance Committee’s health care reform bill."[30] However, she stated that she might not support the final bill due to strong reservations.[36] Snowe was one of three Republicans to break with their party and vote with Democrats to end a filibuster of a defense spending bill; the filibuster was meant to delay or stop the vote on health care legislation.[37] In December 2009, Snowe voted against cloture for two procedural motions and ultimately against the Senate Health Care Reform Bill. Snowe again voted against health care reform when she voted "no" on the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.[38]

When Snowe announced in February 2012 that she would not seek re-election, it was reported that she and Democrat Ben Nelson, who also did not seek re-election, had the closest overlap of any two members of the U.S. Senate.[39]

In 2012, Snowe endorsed Republican candidate Mitt Romney for President of the United States.[40] After leaving the Senate, Snowe announced her support for same-sex marriage.[41]

Snowe has been on the Board of Directors for the investment counsel firm T. Rowe Price since 2013.[42] She opposed Donald Trump as the GOP nominee in 2016.[43] She said that Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton were the least partisan 2016 presidential candidates.[44]

On November 8, 2020, five days after the election, while President Trump and some other members of the Republican Party were falsely claiming he had won the election, Snowe congratulated President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.[45] On January 9, 2021, following the storming of the United States Capitol, she called on President Trump to "resign from office now to allow our nation to begin to heal and prepare for the transition to the Biden presidency."[46]

Townspeople and businesses in Bethel, Maine created "Olympia" the snow-woman, named after Snowe

[47]

• Women in the United States House of Representatives
• Women in the United States Senate
• Rockefeller Republican

• Nine & Counting: The Women of the Senate, Boxer, Collins, Snowe et al., ISBN 0-06-095706-9.
• Fighting for Common Ground: How We can Fix the Stalemate in Congress, Snowe, ISBN 1602862176

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Olympia Snowe.

• U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe official U.S. Senate website
• Olympia Snowe for Senate official campaign website
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Profile at SourceWatch
• U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe audio clips from the Senate Republican Conference
• "The Anguished Moderate", The Washington Post, July 15, 2007.
• Olympia Snowe Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America