Maine's U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe

By Olympia Snowe

Sen. Olympia Snowe

With her election in 1994, Olympia J. Snowe became only the second woman senator in history to represent Maine, following the late Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, who served from 1949 to 1973. In November 2006, she was re-elected to a third six-year term in the U.S. Senate with 74 percent of the vote.

Before her election to the Senate, Snowe represented Maine’s Second Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for 16 years. Snowe is only the fourth woman in history to be elected to both houses of Congress and the first woman in American history to serve in both houses of a state legislature and both houses of Congress.

When first elected to Congress in 1978, at the age of 31, Snowe was the youngest Republican woman, and the first Greek-American woman, ever elected to Congress. She has won more federal elections in Maine than any other person since World War II.

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