Angus Stanley King Jr. (born March 31, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Maine since 2013. A political independent, he served as the 72nd governor of Maine from 1995 to 2003. Born and raised in Virginia, King moved to Maine after graduating from law school. In 1989 he founded Northeast Energy Management, Inc., a company that developed and operated electrical energy conservation projects. He won the 1994 Maine gubernatorial election as the independent candidate in a four-way race and was reelected in a landslide in 1998. As the country's only independent governor, King enjoyed high approval ratings from both major political parties during his tenure. After leaving office in 2003, King returned to his business career. King won Maine's 2012 Senate election to replace the retiring Republican Olympia Snowe and took office on January 3, 2013. He was reelected to a second term in 2018, following the state's inaugural instant-runoff voting elections. For committee assignment purposes, he caucuses with the Democratic Party. He is one of three independents currently serving in the Senate; the others are Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who also caucus with the Democrats.