Olympia Jean Snowe (née Bouchles; born February 21, 1947) is an American businesswoman and politician who was a United States Senator from Maine from 1995 to 2013.

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] Snowe entered politics and rose quickly, winning a seat on the Board of Voter Registration and working for Congressman (later U.S.

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.

[citation needed] 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).

[citation needed] In 1994, when Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell declined to run for re-election, Snowe immediately declared her candidacy for the seat.

When the motion failed, Snowe and Collins voted to acquit, arguing that Clinton's perjury did not warrant his removal from office.

[citation needed] Snowe voted in favor of the nominations of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court.

[18] Snowe is the fourth woman to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the first to chair its seapower subcommittee which oversees the Navy and Marine Corps.

However, on Tuesday, February 27, 2012, citing excessive partisanship and a dispiriting political environment, Snowe announced she would not run for re-election in November 2012.

Her unexpected decision delivered a potential blow to Republicans, who needed just a handful of seats to regain control of the Senate; Snowe was considered one of their safer incumbents.

The Gang-brokered compromise precluded further filibusters and the implementation of the nuclear option for the remainder of the 109th Congress; under its terms, the Democrats retained the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee in an "extraordinary circumstance", and nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) received a simple majority vote by the full Senate.

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.

[32] 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.

[36] "In October 2009, Snowe was the sole Republican in the Senate to vote for the Finance Committee’s health care reform bill.

[38] In December 2009, Snowe voted against cloture for two procedural motions and ultimately against the Senate Health Care Reform Bill.

At the time, it was reported that she and Democrat Ben Nelson (who also did not seek re-election) were the closest to each other, ideologically, of any two members of the U.S. Senate from opposite parties.