Senator Hasn't Missed Vote in More Than 18 Years

Sen. Susan Collins once got off a plane that was about to take off in order to rush back to Washington for a vote, CNN reports. Another time, she broke an ankle sprinting to the Senate chambers while wearing high heels and still managed to vote. That pain paid off today when the Maine Republican became only the third US senator ever to cast 6,000 consecutive votes. According to the AP, she hasn't missed a vote in 18 years. "It matters to me because I want the voices of the people of Maine always to be heard on the Senate floor," Collins tells CNN. "Voting is a senator's most important responsibility." She hit the milestone during two roll call votes on the Iran nuclear deal.

Collins now finds herself trailing only Sen. Chuck Grassley's 7,442 consecutive votes and the Cal Ripken Jr. of legislators, former Sen. William Proxmire, who cast 10,252 consecutive votes between 1966 and 1988, the AP reports. Mitch McConnell told the Senate today he's not sure "surgery, a tsunami, or the most wicked Maine nor'easter" could ever stop Collins from making a vote. Be that as it may, don't count on Collins matching Proxmire's mark. "That's a record that I think will endure the test of time," she says. (More Maine stories.)