Olympia Snowe is an American politician and a former Republican Senator from Maine. During her time as Senator (1995-2013), Snowe was commended for her bipartisanship, ability to compromise, and was one of the leading moderates in her party. In 2006, Snowe was named one of America's best senators by Time Magazine. She was involved in many different committees while senator, and served as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Snowe retired in January, citing an extreme degree of partisanship in congress.
Snowe recently joined the Super PAC Defending Main Street, whose main focus is to defend incumbents against primary challengers. Defending Main Street is attempting to oppose challengers who are often too conservative to win in general elections. Furthermore, Snowe continues to promote bipartisanship in congress, as she did with her latest book Fighting for Common Ground: How We Can Fix the Stalemate in Congress.
Before her time in the Senate, Snowe was elected to the Maine House of Representatives and later the Maine Senate. She subsequently was elected to be a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's 2nd district.