Elizabeth Dole
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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. Dole is Methodist. She is a Republican and is also the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Early life and career
Born Elizabeth Hanford in Salisbury, North Carolina, she attended Duke University, graduating in 1958, obtaining a master's degree from Harvard University in 1960 and a JD from Harvard Law School in 1965. She is an alumna of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.She moved to Washington, DC as a Democrat in 1966, working on issues concerning the handicapped. In 1968 she became an independent and worked in the Nixon White House as executive director of the President's Committee for Consumer Interests. Nixon appointed her to a seven-year term on the Federal Trade Commission. In 1975, she became a Republican. 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.
She married Senator Robert J. Dole as his second wife on December 6, 1975. They have no children. She is the second spouse of a former Senator to be elected to the Senate from a different state from her spouse's (the first was Kansas Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum, who married former Tennessee Senator Howard Baker). Senator Kassebaum married Senator Baker after both had left the Senate, while Senator Dole of North Carolina was elected 27 years after she married Senator Dole of Kansas.
She was United States Secretary of Transportation from 1983 to 1987 under Ronald Reagan. (She was the first woman appointed to that position). One of her most famous accomplishments during her tenure was the mandatory implementation of the third brake light on all passenger cars. As Secretary of Transportation, she is the only woman to have served as the head of a branch of the United States Military, as the United States Coast Guard was in the Department of Transportation at the time. Dole also 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 Administration of two Presidents.
From 1991 to 1999 she was president of the American Red Cross.
2000 Presidential election
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 GOP nomination).In July 2000, shortly before the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Bush campaign sources said 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 [link]. 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.
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 viewed by some as a possible Vice Presidential nominee for the GOP in 2008. (Or a Vice Presidential nominee for the vacancy if Dick Cheney resigns before his term is up).
Electoral history
- 2002 Race for U.S. Senate
- *Elizabeth Dole (R), 54%
- *Erskine Bowles (D), 45%
Books
- Dole, Bob & Elizabeth, (1988) The Doles: Unlimited Partners, with Richard Norton Smith. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671602020
- * (re-release)Unlimited Partners: Our American Story. Simon & Schuster, 1996. ISBN 0684834014
- Dole, Elizabeth (2004) Hearts Touched by Fire: My 500 Most Inspirational Quotations. Carroll & Graf. ISBN 078671428X
Books by other authors
- Wertheimer, Molly Meijer and Nichola D. Gutgold (2004) Elizabeth Hanford Dole: Speaking from the Heart. Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0275983781
External links
- [Official Site U. S. Senate]
- Information from Project Vote Smart
- *[Project Vote Smart Page Biography]
- *[Campaign Finances]
- *[Issue Positions]
- *[Voting record]
- [record maintained by the Washington Post]
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