Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

Senator Olympia Snowe was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1994, and became Maine’s senior Senator in 1996. In 2005, she was named the 54th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine. In 2006, Time Magazine named her one of the top ten U.S. Senators. In 2001, Snowe became the first Republican woman ever to secure a full-term seat on the Senate Finance Committee. Previously, Snowe represented Maine’s Second Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for sixteen years. During her tenure in the House, she co-chaired the Congressional Caucus on Women’s issues for ten years. She earned a B.A. degree in political science at the University of Maine.