Speakers - Maine (Video)

First elected in 1996, Senator Collins has earned a national reputation as an effective legislator who works across party lines to seek consensus on our nation’s most important issues. She was reelected in 2002, 2008, 2014, and 2020. In 2020, she made history by becoming the first-ever Republican woman in the nation to win a fifth term. She is also the first popularly elected U.S. Senator from Maine to be elected to a fifth term. She is the seventh-most senior member of the Senate and the most senior Republican woman. She is the first Republican woman to Chair the Appropriations Committee.

As the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Susan Collins employs her influence, seniority, and experience to benefit the people of Maine and America. The committee has jurisdiction over all discretionary spending for the federal government. Senator Collins first joined the Appropriations Committee in 2009. In the 118th Congress, she served as Vice Chair of the full Committee and Ranking Member of the Defense Appropriation Subcommittee.

In addition to her role on the Appropriations Committee, Senator Collins is a member of the Intelligence Committee and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. She was formerly the Chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and the Aging Committee.

Throughout her Senate service, Maine’s senior U.S. Senator has worked with members of both parties to advance landmark legislation to improve the lives of all Americans. Early in her tenure, Senator Collins led the fight with Senator Dick Durbin to repeal a $50 billion tax break for the tobacco industry. In 2004, she and Senator Joe Lieberman co-authored a law that overhauled the nation’s intelligence community, improving its effectiveness while protecting civil liberties. She was the lead Republican in the successful effort to repeal the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in December 2010. Her leadership was instrumental in ending the 16-day government shutdown in October 2013 as well as the shutdown in February 2018. When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Senator Collins co-authored the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was a lifeline to millions of small businesses across the country and saved tens of millions of jobs. Her more than two decades of work to repeal unfair provisions of the Social Security Act culminated in January 2025 when the Social Security Fairness Act she co-authored was signed into law, restoring earned Social Security benefits for millions of Americans.

Since entering the Senate, Senator Collins has remained dedicated to strengthening American health care and biomedical research. In 1997, she founded the Senate Diabetes Caucus and led the effort in Congress to more than triple federal funding for diabetes research. As the founder and co-chair of the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease, she has worked to increase funding for Alzheimer’s research and to strengthen support for family caregivers. She has championed legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs and launched the Senate’s first bipartisan investigation into the causes, impacts, and potential solutions to egregious insulin price increases. In the 118th Congress, 1,868 standalone health care bills were introduced in both chambers of Congress. Of these, only 15 were signed into law, and five of those bills were introduced or coauthored by Senator Collins.

Senator Collins received the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society for her work to support veterans. In 2023, she received the Naval Heritage Award—the Navy’s highest public service award—from the Secretary of the Navy for her tireless advocacy of shipbuilding programs. In 2024, she was selected by the British Broadcasting Corporation for its annual list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world. In January 2025, Senator Collins was awarded the Army Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest public service recognition awarded by the U.S. Army, in recognition of her support for the Army through her leadership on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

She has repeatedly been ranked as the most bipartisan member of the U.S. Senate by the Lugar Center and Georgetown University. Known for her Maine work ethic, Senator Collins is the first Senator in history to have cast 9,000 votes without ever having missed a vote throughout her entire Senate service.

Senator Collins was born on December 7, 1952, and raised in Caribou, Maine, where her family runs a sixth-generation lumber business founded by her ancestors in 1844. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of St. Lawrence University, she is married to Thomas A. Daffron and resides in Bangor, Maine, with their dog, Pepper.

In January 2013, Angus King was sworn in as Maine’s first Independent United States Senator, filling the same seat once held by storied Maine leaders Edmund Muskie, George Mitchell, and Olympia Snowe.

A strong believer in the need for greater bipartisan dialogue and relationship building, Senator King is proud to join the long line of thoughtful, independent leaders from the State of Maine, and he works hard every day to bring Republicans and Democrats together to find common-sense solutions for Maine and America. He is a proven consensus-builder who “calls ‘em like he sees ‘em”, putting civility and respect ahead of political ideology.

Senator King is a member of the Armed Services Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. He has made it a priority not to miss Committee hearings, earning him praise from his colleagues and the reputation as a workhorse in the Senate. The late Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), who served as Armed Services Chairman, once called Senator King “one of the most serious and hard-working members” of the Committee.

In his time in the Senate, Senator King has worked to strengthen America’s national security, conducted critical oversight of the nation’s Intelligence Community, supported common-sense budget priorities that promote prosperity and reduce the national debt, fought the national opioid and heroin epidemic, coordinated efforts to revitalize Maine’s forest economy, advocated for policies that contribute to cleaner, cheaper energy and mitigate climate change, railed against the corrosive effect of unchecked money in politics, fought to improve access to health care, worked to strengthen the government’s support of veterans, and promoted increased access to critical community resources like rural broadband.

Senator King has achieved significant legislative victories since taking office. He led efforts to draft and pass the Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013, which averted drastic increases in student loan interest rates, saved students across the country more than $50 billion in interest payments, and set the program on a path to long-term financial stability. In 2018, Senator King successfully included a number of provisions in the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, legislation focused on improving the federal government’s response to the opioid epidemic. The legislation, which passed overwhelmingly, included language backed by Senator King to make medication-assisted treatment more readily available and adjust federal restrictions to allow residential treatment facilities to increase treatment capacity. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, he introduced the Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act to improve the Paycheck Protection Program and provide additional flexibility for business owners who’ve received PPP loans.

A leading voice on the importance of improving America’s cybersecurity, Senator King was selected by Congressional leadership to co-chair the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, a bipartisan effort established by Congress to review the threats facing America in cyberspace and develop a forward looking plan on how to defend ourselves against cyber threats. The commission, which consisted of bipartisan members of Congress, top Executive Branch officials, and nonpartisan industry leaders, laid out more than 75 recommendations to improve the cybersecurity of U.S. critical infrastructure and prepare the nation for future challenges in an increasingly digital world.

In fact, it is in small working groups like this that Senator King has focused much of his work. Senator King is committed to working across the aisle in small, bipartisan working groups that bridge partisan divides to address the challenges that face the nation. He co-founded the Former Governors Caucus, which brings together the Senate’s former Governors to chart pragmatic approaches to solutions, as well as the Senate Arctic Caucus, which hones in on Maine and America’s growing interest in the Arctic. Senator King also tries to informally bridge the partisan divide in Washington by frequently bringing his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to his home for barbeque dinners, where political talk is banned and the focus is getting to know one another. The bonds that are formed through these relationships often lay the foundation for successful legislation.

Prior to taking office, Senator King served as the 72nd Governor of Maine. During his two terms in the Blaine House, he focused on economic development and job creation.  Then-Governor King also achieved significant reforms in education, mental health services, land conservation, environmental protection, and the delivery of state services. He was re-elected in 1998 by one of the largest margins in Maine’s history.

Senator King is married to Mary Herman and has four sons, Angus III, Duncan, James, and Ben, one daughter, Molly, and seven grandchildren. He attended Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia Law School. In his free time, he enjoys exploring the Maine outdoors with his family in their camper.