Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine is retiring rather than seeking re-election this year, she said Tuesday.
The decision was made "after an extraordinary amount of reflection and consideration," she said in a statement.
Snowe, who turned 65 last week, was first elected to the U.S. House in 1978 and then to the Senate in 1994. She is the first woman to serve in both chambers of a state legislature and the U.S. Congress.
Snowe was known as a moderate who sometimes sided with Democrats in the increasingly partisan environment of Washington politics.
With Snowe in the race, two of the top political handicappers, the Cook Political Report and the Rothenberg Political Report, had considered the seat "Safe Republican."
Democrats currently hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate. But Democrats and the two independents who caucus with them are defending 23 of the 33 seats up for grabs in November.
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