Susan Collins

Susan Margaret Collins (born December 7, 1952) is an American politician who has represented Maine in the United States Senate since 1997. Born in Caribou, Maine, she graduated from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York.^[1]

Born December 7, 1952 in Caribou, Maine. Age 73 as of 2026.^[4]

Collins began her career in 1975 as a staff assistant to Senator William Cohen and became staff director of a Senate governmental affairs subcommittee in 1981. Governor John R. McKernan Jr. appointed her commissioner of Maine's Department of Professional and Financial Regulation in 1987, and President George H. W. Bush appointed her director of the Small Business Administration's Boston regional office in 1992. She was the Republican nominee for governor of Maine in 1994 and later founded the Center for Family Business at Husson University.^[1]

Collins was first elected to the Senate in 1996 and has been reelected every six years since. She chaired the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs from 2003 to 2007 and the Special Committee on Aging from 2015 to 2021, and has chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee since 2025. She is Maine's longest-serving member of Congress and the longest-serving Republican woman in the Senate.^[1][2][3]