Women of Influence: Susan Collins
Senator Susan Collins is part of a dying breed in American politics, the moderate. In a world that has become increasingly more polarized as social media creates echo chambers, compromise is becoming a lost art, and moderates are criticized by their own parties for not going with the flow, with those of the other side fail to give credit when compromise is reached. All of this seems to be like water off a duck's back for Susan Collins, and the every shrinking band of other senators willing to vote against party when they feel it is right to do so, senators like Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and Joe Manchin.
Susan Margaret Collins was born on December 7, 1952, in Caribou, Maine, to a family of six children. Her family still operates a lumber business established by her great-great-great-grandfather, Samuel W. Collins, in 1844. Her parents are the late Donald Collins and Patricia McGuigan, and they both served as mayor of Caribou at one time. Her father was a decorated veteran of World War II, also he also served in the Maine Legislature, with one term in the state House, and four in the Maine Senate. Collins's mother was born in Barrancabermeja, Colombia, to American parents.
Susan Collins attended Caribou High School, where she was president of the student council. In her senior year of high school, she was chosen to participate in the U.S. Senate Youth Program. The program took her for a visit to Washington, D.C. and it was there that she met Maine's first female United States Senator, Margaret Chase Smith. Collins now holds the seat once held by Smith. After graduating from high school, she attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York and graduated from St. Lawrence magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in government in 1975.
Following graduation, Collins worked as a legislative assistant to U.S. Representative and later U.S. Senator William Cohen from 1975 to 1987. She was also staff director of the Oversight of Government Management Subcommittee on the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs from 1981 to 1987. In 1987, Collins was appointed by Governor John R. McKernan Jr. as Commissioner of the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, and in 1992 President George H. W. Bush appointed her the New England regional director for the Small Business Administration in 1992. She left this post and became Deputy State Treasurer of Massachusetts in 1993.
Collins won a hotly contested eight person Republican primary in the 1994 race for governor of that state, becoming the first woman nominated by a major party for governor of Maine. But during the campaign, she received little support from party leaders because of her liberal views on social issues. She lost the general election, receiving 23% of the vote. Independent candidate Angus King, her future Senate colleague, was elected Governor that year.
In December 1994, Collins became the founding executive director of the Richard E. Dyke Center for Family Business at Husson College. In 1996, she announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by her former boss, William Cohen, who left to become United States Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton. With Cohen's endorsement, she won another hotly contested four-way primary and went on to win the general election by a margin of 49% to 44% for her closest opponent. During the campaign she pledged that, if elected, she would serve only two terms. She was reelected in 2002 over State Senator Chellie Pingree, 58%–42%. Despite her earlier promise, she ran again in 2008 and was re-elected, by a margin of 61.5%–38.5%, and again in 2014 by a margin of 68.5%–31.5%. In her first three reelection campaigns, she carried every county in Maine.
In 2020, Collins faced her toughest race for re-election when she was challenged by Democratic State House Speaker Sara Gideon. The race was the most expensive in Maine history, with Collins spending $23 million and Gideon nearly $48 million. Despite trailing Gideon in every public poll of the race, Collins defeated Gideon by a decisive margin. To date, Collins is the longest-serving Republican woman in the Senate.
Colling and her former fellow senator, Olympia Snowe, represented their state in the Senate as moderates, buy Collins considers herself to be a "half-turn more conservative" than Snowe. She has received support from the Human Rights Campaign, a major LGBT rights organization. In 2004, Collins was one of six Republicans who voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage. She voted in favor of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 and was the primary Republican sponsor of the repeal effort. In 2015, she was one of 11 Republican senators to vote to give Social Security benefits to same-sex couples in states where same-sex marriage was not yet recognized. In 2017 and 2019, Collins co-sponsored bills with Democratic senators to prevent President Trump from banning transgender people from the United States military and prohibit anti-LGBT housing discrimination. She was the only Republican co-sponsor of the Equality Act, which aims to comprehensively prohibit LGBT discrimination. However in 2021, Collins was one of 49 senators to vote for an amendment to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which aimed to defund schools allowing transgender students to compete in sports.
Collins supported John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. She became the state's senior senator in 2013 when Olympia Snowe left the Senate. Collins has established a reputation as a hard-working senator. She cast her 8,000th consecutive roll call vote on October 28, 2021. Many of her criticisms have been issue-driven rather than party-driven. For example in May 2013, following a report that the Internal Revenue Service had put additional scrutiny on conservative groups, Collins stated that thus revelation "contributes to the profound distrust that the American people have in government." She said that she was personally disappointed that President Barack Obama had not "personally condemned this and spoken out."
But she has also often voted against the majority of her party. On August 8, 2016, Collins announced that she would not vote for Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in the 2016 presidential election. She said that although she was a lifelong Republican, she felt that he was unsuitable for office, "based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics". She said that instead she would consider voting for the Libertarian Party's ticket or a write-in candidate. In the 2016 United States presidential election, Collins received one electoral vote for vice president from a faithless elector in Washington.
In January 2017, Collins and Senator Lisa Murkowski voted for Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, within the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, so that her nomination could be put on the Senator floor for a fill vote, but in that vote, she and Murkowski were the only Republicans to break party lines and vote against DeVos's confirmation. This caused a 50–50 tie that was broken by Senate President Mike Pence to confirm DeVos.
She was also one of seven Republicans who, in July of 2017, refused to support the American Health Care Act, the House Republicans' plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. She announced she would vote against the Senate version of the Republican bill to repeal Obamacare because there was no suitable replacement proposed. She also opposed President Trump's decision not to impose sanctions on Russia in retaliation for Russian interference in the 2016 election. In 2018 Collins said it was confirmed Russia had tried to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and said that "not only should there be a price to pay in terms of sanctions, but also we need to put safeguards in place right now for the elections for this year." In January 2019, Collins was one of 11 Republican senators to vote to advance legislation intended to block President Trump from lifting sanctions on three Russian companies.
On October 26, 2020, Collins was the only Republican senator to vote against the confirmation of Trump's nominee Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Barrett was confirmed by a vote of 52–48. Earlier this year she was one of only three Republican senators to vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, the other two being Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney.
On February 13, 2021, Collins was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial. She also was the only GOP senator to vote against the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
Susan Margaret Collins was born on December 7, 1952, in Caribou, Maine, to a family of six children. Her family still operates a lumber business established by her great-great-great-grandfather, Samuel W. Collins, in 1844. Her parents are the late Donald Collins and Patricia McGuigan, and they both served as mayor of Caribou at one time. Her father was a decorated veteran of World War II, also he also served in the Maine Legislature, with one term in the state House, and four in the Maine Senate. Collins's mother was born in Barrancabermeja, Colombia, to American parents.
Susan Collins attended Caribou High School, where she was president of the student council. In her senior year of high school, she was chosen to participate in the U.S. Senate Youth Program. The program took her for a visit to Washington, D.C. and it was there that she met Maine's first female United States Senator, Margaret Chase Smith. Collins now holds the seat once held by Smith. After graduating from high school, she attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York and graduated from St. Lawrence magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in government in 1975.
Following graduation, Collins worked as a legislative assistant to U.S. Representative and later U.S. Senator William Cohen from 1975 to 1987. She was also staff director of the Oversight of Government Management Subcommittee on the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs from 1981 to 1987. In 1987, Collins was appointed by Governor John R. McKernan Jr. as Commissioner of the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, and in 1992 President George H. W. Bush appointed her the New England regional director for the Small Business Administration in 1992. She left this post and became Deputy State Treasurer of Massachusetts in 1993.
Collins won a hotly contested eight person Republican primary in the 1994 race for governor of that state, becoming the first woman nominated by a major party for governor of Maine. But during the campaign, she received little support from party leaders because of her liberal views on social issues. She lost the general election, receiving 23% of the vote. Independent candidate Angus King, her future Senate colleague, was elected Governor that year.
In December 1994, Collins became the founding executive director of the Richard E. Dyke Center for Family Business at Husson College. In 1996, she announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by her former boss, William Cohen, who left to become United States Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton. With Cohen's endorsement, she won another hotly contested four-way primary and went on to win the general election by a margin of 49% to 44% for her closest opponent. During the campaign she pledged that, if elected, she would serve only two terms. She was reelected in 2002 over State Senator Chellie Pingree, 58%–42%. Despite her earlier promise, she ran again in 2008 and was re-elected, by a margin of 61.5%–38.5%, and again in 2014 by a margin of 68.5%–31.5%. In her first three reelection campaigns, she carried every county in Maine.
In 2020, Collins faced her toughest race for re-election when she was challenged by Democratic State House Speaker Sara Gideon. The race was the most expensive in Maine history, with Collins spending $23 million and Gideon nearly $48 million. Despite trailing Gideon in every public poll of the race, Collins defeated Gideon by a decisive margin. To date, Collins is the longest-serving Republican woman in the Senate.
Colling and her former fellow senator, Olympia Snowe, represented their state in the Senate as moderates, buy Collins considers herself to be a "half-turn more conservative" than Snowe. She has received support from the Human Rights Campaign, a major LGBT rights organization. In 2004, Collins was one of six Republicans who voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage. She voted in favor of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 and was the primary Republican sponsor of the repeal effort. In 2015, she was one of 11 Republican senators to vote to give Social Security benefits to same-sex couples in states where same-sex marriage was not yet recognized. In 2017 and 2019, Collins co-sponsored bills with Democratic senators to prevent President Trump from banning transgender people from the United States military and prohibit anti-LGBT housing discrimination. She was the only Republican co-sponsor of the Equality Act, which aims to comprehensively prohibit LGBT discrimination. However in 2021, Collins was one of 49 senators to vote for an amendment to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which aimed to defund schools allowing transgender students to compete in sports.
Collins supported John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. She became the state's senior senator in 2013 when Olympia Snowe left the Senate. Collins has established a reputation as a hard-working senator. She cast her 8,000th consecutive roll call vote on October 28, 2021. Many of her criticisms have been issue-driven rather than party-driven. For example in May 2013, following a report that the Internal Revenue Service had put additional scrutiny on conservative groups, Collins stated that thus revelation "contributes to the profound distrust that the American people have in government." She said that she was personally disappointed that President Barack Obama had not "personally condemned this and spoken out."
But she has also often voted against the majority of her party. On August 8, 2016, Collins announced that she would not vote for Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in the 2016 presidential election. She said that although she was a lifelong Republican, she felt that he was unsuitable for office, "based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics". She said that instead she would consider voting for the Libertarian Party's ticket or a write-in candidate. In the 2016 United States presidential election, Collins received one electoral vote for vice president from a faithless elector in Washington.
In January 2017, Collins and Senator Lisa Murkowski voted for Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, within the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, so that her nomination could be put on the Senator floor for a fill vote, but in that vote, she and Murkowski were the only Republicans to break party lines and vote against DeVos's confirmation. This caused a 50–50 tie that was broken by Senate President Mike Pence to confirm DeVos.
She was also one of seven Republicans who, in July of 2017, refused to support the American Health Care Act, the House Republicans' plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. She announced she would vote against the Senate version of the Republican bill to repeal Obamacare because there was no suitable replacement proposed. She also opposed President Trump's decision not to impose sanctions on Russia in retaliation for Russian interference in the 2016 election. In 2018 Collins said it was confirmed Russia had tried to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and said that "not only should there be a price to pay in terms of sanctions, but also we need to put safeguards in place right now for the elections for this year." In January 2019, Collins was one of 11 Republican senators to vote to advance legislation intended to block President Trump from lifting sanctions on three Russian companies.
On October 26, 2020, Collins was the only Republican senator to vote against the confirmation of Trump's nominee Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Barrett was confirmed by a vote of 52–48. Earlier this year she was one of only three Republican senators to vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, the other two being Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney.
On February 13, 2021, Collins was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial. She also was the only GOP senator to vote against the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.