60 Facts About Angus King

Angus King was reelected to a second term in 2018, following the state's inaugural instant-runoff voting elections.

Angus King is one of two independents currently serving in the Senate, the other being Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats.

Angus King's father was a U S magistrate for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Angus King attended Dartmouth College, earning his B A in 1966.

Angus King then attended the University of Virginia School of Law, graduating in 1969.

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Angus King was a staff attorney for Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Skowhegan.

Angus King was well-known statewide as a host on public television.

In 1973, when he was 29, Angus King was diagnosed with an aggressive form of malignant melanoma.

Angus King has said he believes he survived cancer only because he had health insurance, and has highlighted this experience when explaining his support for the Affordable Care Act.

In 1975, Angus King returned to Maine to practice with Smith, Loyd and Angus King in Brunswick.

In 1989, Angus King founded Northeast Energy Management, Inc, a company that developed and operated electrical energy conservation projects.

In May 1993, Angus King announced he would run for governor of Maine as an independent.

Angus King abandoned his lifelong affiliation with the Maine Democratic Party.

Angus King positioned himself as a businessman and a pragmatic environmentalist focused on job creation and education.

Angus King was one of only two governors nationwide not affiliated with either of the two major parties, the other being Jesse Ventura of Minnesota, who was elected in 1998 as a member of the Reform Party.

In 2002 Angus King launched the Maine Learning Technology Initiative to provide laptops for every public middle-school student in the state, the first initiative of its kind in the nation.

Angus King was appointed a visiting lecturer at Bowdoin in 2004 and an endowed lecturer at Bates in 2009, teaching courses in American politics and political leadership at both institutions.

The following week, Angus King announced that he would caucus with Senate Democrats, explaining not only that it made more sense to affiliate with the party that had a clear majority, but that he would have been largely excluded from the committee process had he not caucused with a party.

Angus King said he had not ruled out caucusing with the Republicans if they took control of the Senate in 2014 United States Senate elections, but when Republicans did win the majority that year, he remained in the Democratic caucus.

Angus King supported reform of the Senate filibuster, noting that senators are no longer required to stand on the floor and speak during a filibuster.

Angus King pointed out that the Constitution contains no 60-vote requirement to conduct business in the Senate.

Accordingly, in 2013 Angus King voted in favor of the so-called nuclear option to eliminate the filibuster for most presidential nominees.

Angus King supported the more modest Senate efforts to save $4 billion over the same period by closing loopholes.

In 2014 Angus King was chosen for the annual tradition of reading George Washington's Farewell Address to the Senate.

Angus King stated he had "never been so mad about a phone call in my entire life, " after the phone call with Pence.

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Angus King was participating in the certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count when Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol.

Angus King called the event a "violent insurrection" and "unspeakably sad", and blamed Trump.

Angus King has called himself "neither a Democrat nor a Republican, but an American".

Angus King has received higher approval ratings from liberal interest groups than conservative ones.

In 2014, Angus King endorsed his Republican colleague from Maine, Susan Collins.

Angus King has called for the continuation of a tariff on imported athletic footwear, citing the potential loss of jobs at New Balance's Skowhegan and Madison factories in Maine.

Also while governor, Angus King vetoed a bill that would have raised Maine's minimum wage by 25 cents per hour.

Angus King has voted to arm Syrian rebels who are fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ISIL militants.

Angus King opposes the U S embargo against Cuba, calling it an "antiquated" relic of the Cold War; in 2015 King introduced legislation to lift the embargo.

Angus King said that the entire committee had "no doubt whatsoever" about the Kremlin's culpability in the meddling and described the cyberattacks as "a frontal assault on our democracy" that could present a long-term threat.

In November 2018 Angus King joined Senators Chris Coons, Marco Rubio and a bipartisan group of lawmakers in sending the Trump administration a letter raising concerns about the People's Republic of China's undue influence on media outlets and academic institutions in the United States.

In late 2018 King voted to withdraw U S military aid for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen.

In 2015 Angus King supported the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an international agreement with Iran.

Angus King opposes oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, believing the amount of oil is not worth the environmental risk of extracting it.

Angus King said he was "frustrated" with President Obama's delay in deciding whether to authorize construction, but that he opposed Congress legislating the approval or disapproval of a construction project.

Angus King has expressed opposition to the creation of a Maine Woods National Park, stating on his 2012 campaign website that local control is the best way to conserve land, but in 2014 stating that he was keeping an open mind about the idea.

Angus King initially expressed "serious reservations" about proposals to establish the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, but expressed support for President Obama's creation of the monument in 2016, saying that the administration had made commitments that convinced him that "the benefits of the designation will far outweigh any detriment"; that the monument would not hurt Maine's pulp and paper industry, and that the monument would help diversify the local economy.

Angus King opposes efforts in Maine to ban the baiting and trapping of bears, including an effort to put the question to voters in 2014, calling such practices necessary to prevent interaction between bears and people, and stating the practices are based on science and the views of experts.

In July 2019 Angus King called climate change "one of the most serious threats to" the United States, saying that two thirds of Arctic ice has disappeared over the past 30 years.

In 2018 Angus King introduced legislation to halt separations of immigrant families at the border.

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Angus King supports expanding background checks to most firearms transactions, with exceptions for transfers between family members, calling such a position "the single most effective step" that can be taken to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

Angus King supports limiting the size of magazines to 10 rounds, and to make purchasing a gun for someone not legally allowed to have one a federal crime.

Angus King noted that the vast majority of gun crimes are committed with handguns, not rifles.

Angus King voted for the Manchin–Toomey amendment to expand background checks for gun purchases.

In 2018 Angus King was a cosponsor of the NICS Denial Notification Act, legislation developed in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that would require federal authorities to inform states within a day after a person failing the National Instant Criminal Background Check System attempted to buy a firearm.

Angus King spoke out against the House Republican repeal legislation, noting that the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 14 million Americans would lose health insurance if the legislation were enacted.

Angus King is a supporter of the Children's Health Insurance Program program.

Angus King criticized Trump's 2017 budget proposal for its cuts to medical research.

In July 2019 Angus King was one of eight senators to cosponsor the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act, a bill intended to strengthen training for new and existing physicians, people who teach palliative care, and other providers who are on palliative care teams that grant patients and their families a voice in their care and treatment goals.

In October 2019 Angus King was one of 27 senators to sign a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer advocating the passage of the Community Health Investment, Modernization, and Excellence Act, which was set to expire the following month.

In June 2019 Angus King was one of ten senators to cosponsor the Safe Freight Act, a bill that would require freight trains have one or more certified conductors and a certified engineer aboard who can collaborate on how to protect both the train and people living near the tracks.

Angus King signed an amicus brief to the U S Supreme Court in United States v Windsor encouraging it to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act.

In March 2019 Angus King was a cosponsor of a bipartisan resolution led by Gary Peters and Jerry Moran that opposed privatization of the United States Postal Service, citing the USPS as a self-sustained establishment and noting concerns that privatization could cause higher prices and reduced services for its customers, especially in rural communities.

In June 2015, Angus King underwent a successful surgery that removed a cancerous prostate that had been detected in a screening and biopsy.

Angus King fully recovered from the disease, saying, "I didn't feel great during the worst of my illness, but I'm confident that I would have felt a whole lot worse if I hadn't received the vaccine".