When you talk about the most powerful women in the United States Senate, you will not fail to mention the name of Susan Collins. She is currently the United States Senator for Maine. She is a Republican and chair of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Dean of the Maine Congressional Delegation, and former Chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. She has also served on other subcommittees, including the Subcommittee on Defense, the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, the Subcommittee on Agriculture, and many others. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Bates College for her non-partisan work in the Senate.
Susan Collins Biography
Susan Collins was born on December 7, 1952, one of six children in Caribou, Maine, as Susan Margaret Collins. Her father was a highly decorated World War II veteran who served in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, while her mother was the Mayor of Caribou. Her family is of English and Irish descent, and she has an uncle who sat on the Maine Supreme Court and also served in the Maine Senate. As a teenager, Susan attended Caribou High School and became chairperson of the student council, and in her last year of high school, she was a participant in the U.S. Senate Youth Program.
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She also first visited Washington, D.C., and then met with the first female Senator of the United States of Maine, Margaret Chase Smith, who was also a Republican. They joined forces and Margaret became Susan’s mentor and role model. After graduating from Caribou High School, she began studies at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, where she was elected to the national academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa. Over time, Susan graduated magna cum laude in 1975 with a Bachelor’s degree in Government.
Career
Upon graduation, she became assistant to the then U.S. Representative and Senator William Cohen and was also staff director of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Governance on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the U.S. Senate. In 1987, Susan was appointed Commissioner for the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation by Governor John R. McKernan, Jr. In 1992, she was appointed New England Regional Director for the Small Business Administration, a position given to her by then-President George H. W. Bush, and in 1993 she moved to Massachusetts to become Assistant Treasurer of the State of Massachusetts under Joe Malone.
The incoming congresswoman returned to Maine in 1994 to become the first woman nominated by a major party to run for governor of Maine but later lost to Angus King. Later that year, Susan founded the Center for Family Business at Husson College in Bangor, Maine, and resumed her political career from there in 1996, this time for the seat in the U.S. Senate, which she won. Since then she has been re-elected in 2002, 2008, and 2014, defeating her various opponents. She is widely considered a member of the Republican Party with moderate political views and also a heavyweight in the U.S. Senate.
Susan Collins is also an avid member of a number of organizations within the Republican Party, including The Wish List, Republican Majority For Choice, Republicans for Environmental Protection, and others. She has received regular support from the Human Rights Campaign, an organization that promotes the rights of LGBT and has played an important role, including helping to keep Bill Clinton in office when the U.S. Senate initiated impeachment proceedings against him. She also supported Tom Daschle’s proposal to ban any abortion that mutilates the fetus when it can live outside the womb.
Susan Collins Net Worth
Susan Collins was recently named one of the ten most powerful women in Washington, and she has received so many awards and honors, including the Congressional Sea Services Award, the Spirit of Enterprise Award, the Legislator of the Year Award, and others. This has given her the opportunity to speak at numerous public events where she is paid. In addition to her income as a senator and her investments, this makes Susan worth well over $4 million.
Who is Her Husband?
Susan Collins is the epitome of what it means to be a career woman and never really have time for marriage because she has focused solely on her career. However, at the age of 59, she married a man named Thomas Daffron on August 11, 2012.
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Thomas Daffron was formerly COO of the Jefferson Consulting Group. He was a former reporter who served as a top executive for numerous congressmen. Their relationship goes back a long way, as he once hired her as his intern when she was just 21 years old. Marriage is a rarity as it is hard to find a couple’s wedding at that age, but Susan and Thomas seem to enjoy every bit of their time together.
Other Interesting Facts
1. Susan Collins is a senior United States senator and the highest-ranking female senator in Congress.
2. She has never missed a vote since she became a senator. Her long consecutive series of votes amounts to over 6,000 votes.
3. One thing she has made clear is that she is a pro-choice Republican who strongly supports abortion rights movements.
4. She currently happens to be the most bipartisan senator in the United States Congress, known for her ability to quickly find a common basis for compromise with other colleagues from other parties, despite her ideology and beliefs.
5. She also has financiers at the top, including General Dynamics (a defense and arms industry), the Cohen Group (a commercial enterprise), and Elliott Management (an investment management company that owns the largest activist fund in the world).