page_title: Tom Allen
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Tom Allen / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: United States Congressman Tom Allen (D-Maine) and his wife, Diane Allen
context_page_description: Thomas Hodge Allen is an American author and former politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Maine's 1st congressional district, and the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2008 against Republican incumbent senator Susan Collins. Allen lost to Collins.
  Allen was first elected in 1996, defeating Republican incumbent James Longley, Jr. with 55 percent of votes cast to Longley's 45 percent. Allen was re-elected five times, receiving over 55 percent of the vote each time in his district, until his defeat in his 2008 run for the U.S. Senate. After, Allen was appointed president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers and began his term on May 1, 2009. His book Dangerous Convictions: What's Really Wrong with the U.S. Congress came out in 2013.
context_section_description: Allen was born in Portland, Maine to Genevieve ("Sukey") Lahee and Charles W. Allen. He graduated from Deering High School. He went on to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine before winning a Rhodes Scholarship to Wadham College, Oxford. During this time he became friends with fellow Rhodes scholar Bill Clinton. After Oxford he went on to Harvard Law School and practiced as a lawyer.
caption: Tom Allen and his wife, Diana Allen.
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