Elizabeth Dole

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Elizabeth Dole
Senior Senator from North Carolina
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 7, 2003– Serving with Richard Burr
Preceded by	Jesse Helms
Succeeded by	Incumbent (2009)
Born	July 29, 1936 (age 70) Salisbury, North Carolina
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Robert Dole
Religion	Methodist

Elizabeth Hanford "Liddy" Dole (born July 29, 1936) was elected to the United States Senate in 2002 to represent North Carolina for a term ending in 2009. She is a Republican and is also the outgoing chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Her husband is former U.S. Senator and Presidential nominee Bob Dole.

[edit] Early life and career

Dole was born Elizabeth Hanford in Salisbury, North Carolina to Mary Ella Cathey (died December 2004) and John Van Hanford.^[1] She attended Duke University, graduating in 1958, obtaining a master's degree from Harvard University in 1960 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1965. She is an alumna of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.

Sen. Dole discusses the War in Iraq with then Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sen. John Warner (R-VA) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

She moved to Washington, DC as a Democrat in 1966, working on issues concerning the handicapped. Dole, who had campaigned for the Kennedy-Johnson ticket in 1960, worked in the White House in the latter years of the administration of Lyndon Johnson. When many Democrats left the White House following Richard Nixon's replacement of Johnson, Dole did not. From 1969 to 1973, Elizabeth Dole served as Deputy Assistant to President Nixon for Consumer Affairs. In 1973, Nixon appointed her to a seven-year term on the Federal Trade Commission. In 1975, she became a Republican. She dated Senator Robert J. Dole then became his second wife on December 6, 1975. They have no children. She took a leave from her post as a Federal Trade Commissioner for several months in 1976 to campaign for her husband for Vice President of the United States. She resigned from the FTC in 1979 to campaign for her husband's 1980 Presidential Campaign.

Her election to the Senate marked the second time a spouse of a former Senator was elected to the Senate from a different state from that of her spouse (the first was Kansas Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum, who married former Tennessee Senator Howard Baker--though Kassebaum and Baker were married after both had finished their service in the Senate).

Elizabeth Dole with friend and mentor Virginia Knauer. Mrs. Knauer ran the White House Office of Consumer Affairs in the Nixon Administration where Sen. Dole served as a Deputy Assistant to the President.

She served as United States Secretary of Transportation from 1983 to 1987 under Ronald Reagan, the first woman appointed to that position. In this role, she was the first woman to have served as the head of a branch of the United States Military, because the United States Coast Guard was in the Department of Transportation at the time.

During her tenure the implementation of the "third eye" brake light on passenger cars was made mandatory. She worked with MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) to pass laws withholding federal highway funding from any state which had a drinking age below twenty-one. She oversaw the privatization of the national freight railroad, CONRAIL. She initiated random drug testing within the Department of Transportation.

Dole served as United States Secretary of Labor from 1989 to 1990 under George H. W. Bush; she is the first woman to serve in two different Cabinet positions in the administrations of two Presidents.

From 1991 to 1999 she was president of the American Red Cross.

[edit] 2000 Presidential election

Elizabeth Dole ran for the Republican nomination in the US presidential election of 2000, but pulled out of the race in October 1999 before any of the primaries, largely due to inadequate fundraising. Dole placed third — behind George W. Bush and Steve Forbes — in a large field in the Iowa Straw Poll (the first, non-binding, test of electability for the Republican Party nomination).

In July 2000, shortly before the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Bush campaign sources said Mrs. Dole was on the short list to be named the vice-presidential nominee, along with Michigan Governor John Engler, New York Governor George Pataki, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, and former Missouri Senator John Danforth [1]. Bush then surprised most pundits by selecting former U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, who was actually in charge of leading Bush's search for a vice presidential nominee.

[edit] Election to the U.S. Senate

In 2002, Dole sought election to the U.S. Senate from North Carolina, to fill the seat that was made available by the retirement of Jesse Helms (R). She defeated her Democratic opponent Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton.

In November 2004, following Republican gains in the United States Senate, Dole narrowly edged out Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota for the post of chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She is first woman to become chair of the NRSC. During her election cycle as chairperson, her Democratic Party counterpart, Senator Chuck Schumer significantly out-fundraised her. In the November election, Dole's party lost six U.S. Senate seats to the Democrats, thus losing control of the U.S. Senate.

Dole was replaced as NRSC chair by Senator John Ensign of Nevada following the 2006 Midterm Elections.

[edit] Electoral history

• 2002 Race for U.S. Senate
  • Elizabeth Dole (R), 54%
  • Erskine Bowles (D), 45%

[edit] Books

Bookcover of the Doles' story

• Dole, Bob & Elizabeth, (1988) The Doles: Unlimited Partners, with Richard Norton Smith. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-60202-0
  • (re-release) Unlimited Partners: Our American Story. Simon & Schuster, 1996. ISBN 0-684-83401-4
• Dole, Elizabeth (2004) Hearts Touched by Fire: My 500 Most Inspirational Quotations. Carroll & Graf. ISBN 0-7867-1428-X
• Dole, Elizabeth (1998) Elizabeth Dole: A Leader In Washington. The Millbrook Press. ISBN 0-7613-0203-4

[edit] Books by other authors

• Wertheimer, Molly Meijer and Nichola D. Gutgold (2004) Elizabeth Hanford Dole: Speaking from the Heart. Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0-275-98378-1

[edit] See also

• Women in the United States Senate

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

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• United States Senator Elizabeth Dole official Senate site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Federal Election Commission - Elizabeth H Dole campaign finance reports and data
• New York Times - Elizabeth Dole News collected news and commentary
• On the Issues - Elizabeth Dole issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org - Elizabeth Dole campaign contributions
• Information from Project Vote Smart
  • Project Vote Smart Page Biography
  • Campaign Finances
  • Issue Positions
  • Voting record
• SourceWatch Congresspedia - Elizabeth Dole profile
• Washington Post - Congress Votes Database: Elizabeth Dole voting record

United States Secretaries of Labor
Secretaries of Commerce & Labor (1903–1913): Cortelyou • Metcalf • Straus • Nagel Secretaries of Labor (1913–): Wilson • Davis • Doak • Perkins • Schwellenbach • Tobin • Durkin • Mitchell • Goldberg • Wirtz • Shultz • Hodgson • Brennan • Dunlop • Usery • Marshall • Donovan • Brock • McLaughlin • Dole • Martin • Reich • Herman • Chao

United States Secretaries of Transportation
Boyd • Volpe • Brinegar • Coleman • Adams • Goldschmidt • Lewis • Dole • Burnley • Skinner • Card • Peña • Slater • Mineta • Peters