|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Elizabeth Dole |
|
Elizabeth Hanford Dole
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 7, 2003 Serving with Richard Burr |
|
| Preceded by | Jesse Helms |
|---|---|
|
|
|
| In office January 25, 1989 – November 23, 1990 |
|
| President | George H. W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Ann Dore McLaughlin |
| Succeeded by | Lynn Morley Martin |
|
|
|
| In office February 7, 1983 – September 30, 1987 |
|
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Andrew L. Lewis, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | James H. Burnley IV |
|
|
|
| Born | July 29, 1936 Salisbury, North Carolina |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Bob Dole |
| Children | Robin Dole (stepdaughter) |
| Residence | Salisbury, North Carolina |
| Alma mater | Duke University Harvard Graduate School of Education Harvard Law School |
| Religion | Baptist |
Mary Elizabeth Hanford "Liddy" Dole (born July 29, 1936) is an American politician who served in both the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush presidential administrations. She is currently serving as a United States senator from North Carolina after being elected to the Senate in 2002 as the first female U.S. senator from North Carolina. She ran for re-election in 2008, but lost to Democrat Kay Hagan.1
A graduate of Duke University and Harvard Law School, Dole served as Secretary of Transportation under Ronald Reagan and Secretary of Labor under George H.W. Bush before becoming head of the American Red Cross. She is a member of the Republican Party and former chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She is married to former U.S. Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican presidential nominee Sen. Bob Dole.
Contents |
Dole was born Mary Elizabeth Hanford in Salisbury, North Carolina, to Mary Ella Cathey (1901–2004) and John Van Hanford (1893–1978).2
She attended Duke University, graduating in 1958, and followed that with post-graduate work at Oxford in 1959. She earned a master's degree in education from Harvard University in 1960 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1965. She is an alumna of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and was recognized for being their leading orchid grower several times.
Dole first met her future husband, Senator Bob Dole in the spring of 1972 at a meeting arranged by her boss and mentor, Virginia Knauer.3 The couple dated, and she became his second wife on December 6, 1975. They have no children, though she is stepmother to Bob's adult daughter Robin from his first marriage of 24 years that ended in divorce in 1972.
Dole, who had campaigned for the Kennedy-Johnson presidential ticket in 1960, worked in the White House in the later years of the administration of Lyndon B. 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 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 when he ran on the Republican ticket with Gerald Ford. She later resigned from the FTC in 1979 to campaign for her husband's 1980 presidential run.
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, as the United States Coast Guard was under 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 that had a drinking age below twenty-one. The state government of South Dakota opposed the drinking age law and sued Dole in the case South Dakota v. Dole, but the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Dole. 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.
In 1991 Dole became the president of the American Red Cross. She served until 1999 when she resigned, leaving little doubt she intended to pursue the Presidency of the United States.citation needed
Dole's husband Bob Dole was the Republican nominee in the US presidential election of 1996. Elizabeth Dole, who would have become First Lady had her husband won the election, received recognition for her speech at the 1996 Republican National Convention, during which she walked out into the audience while talking conversationally about her husband's qualities.
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). The Iowa Straw Poll differed from the national polls where she was second only to Bush; Senator John McCain was in third place.
In July 2000, shortly before the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Bush campaign sources said Elizabeth 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, author and political figure Lynne Cheney, and former Missouri Senator John Danforth.4 Many pundits believed that Dole was the frontrunner for the Vice Presidential nomination. 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.
In late December 2001, Dole shifted her official residency from the Doles' condominium in the Watergate complex to her mother's home in Salisbury to seek election to the U.S. Senate.56 The seat was made available by the retirement of Republican Jesse Helms. Although Dole hadn't lived regularly in North Carolina since 1959, the state and national Republican establishment quickly cleared the field for her. She handily won the Republican primary with 80 percent of the vote over a lesser-known candidate, Dr. Ada Fisher. In the November general election, she defeated her Democratic opponent Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton, by a surprisingly large eight-point margin.
Her election to the Senate marked the first time a spouse of a former Senator was elected to the Senate from a different state from that of her spouse. (Although Kansas Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum married former Tennessee Senator Howard Baker, the marriage occurred after Kassebaum and Baker both had finished their service in the Senate). Dole was criticized by Democrats during her first Senate campaign over the fact that for over 40 years prior to her nomination, she had not lived in North Carolina.
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 the first woman to become chair of the NRSC. During her election cycle as chairperson, her Democratic Party counterpart, Senator Chuck Schumer raised significantly more money, and experienced more success in recruiting candidates. 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 midterms.
Dole was initially a heavy favorite for re-election, especially after several potential top-tier challengers such as Congressman Brad Miller, Governor Mike Easley and former Governor Jim Hunt all declined to compete against Dole.78 Ultimately, Kay Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro, won the Democratic primary election against Jim Neal and became Dole's general election opponent. Reports late in the campaign suggested that Dole suffered from Barack Obama's decision to aggressively contest North Carolina in the presidential election,9 while Hagan received substantial support from independent 527 groups lobbying/advertising against Dole,8 as well as the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, which spent more money in North Carolina than in any other state during the 2008 election season.8 Dole undertook an eight-day "ElizaBus" tour of the state in the days leading up to election day.10
In late October, Dole released a controversial television ad attacking Hagan for reportedly taking donations from individuals involved in the Godless Americans PAC, a group which advocates for the rights of people who do not believe in God. The ad also included a female voice saying, "There is no God."11 Hagan's campaign said the ad sought to put inflammatory words in their candidate's mouth. Hagan, who is a member of the Presbyterian Church and a former Sunday school teacher,12 condemned the ad as "fabricated and pathetic," and, according to Hagan's campaign website, a cease-and-desist letter was "hand-delivered to Dole's Raleigh office, faxed to her Salisbury office and sent to her home at the Watergate in Washington, DC."13 Hagan also filed a lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court accusing Dole of defamation and libel.1415 The ad has met exceptionally strong criticism from the public as well as many local and several national media outlets. The media reported that within 48 hours of the first the ad Hagan received over 3,600 contributions, including major donors as well as individual support from a range of atheists, agnostics and other religious beliefs who felt they were being attacked by Dole.16 Following the second ad Hagan's lead doubled according to some polls.17
In the 2008 election, Dole lost by a wider-than-expected margin, taking only 44 percent of the vote to Hagan's 53 percent – the widest margin for a Senate race in North Carolina in 30 years, and the largest margin of defeat for an incumbent Senator in the 2008 cycle. It has been speculated that the outcry over the "Godless" ad contributed to Dole's loss.18 Hagan trounced Dole in the state's five largest counties – Mecklenburg, Wake, Guilford, Forsyth and Durham. Hagan also dominated most of the eastern portion of the state, which had been the backbone of Helms' past Senate victories. While Dole dominated the Charlotte suburbs and most of the heavily Republican Foothills region, it was not enough to save her seat.
Dole worked with other senators such as Chuck Hagel to draft and attempt to pass legislation reforming housing financing regulation; the bill did not go up for a vote.19
In September 2008, Dole joined the Gang of 20, a bipartisan group working towards comprehensive energy reform. The group is pushing for a bill that would encourage state-by-state decisions on offshore drilling and authorize billions of dollars for conservation and alternative energy.20
As a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, Dole is credited with helping to prevent any closures of North Carolina military bases despite threats from the Department of Defense.21 In 2007, she sponsored legislation which would have granted federal recognition of a North Carolina Native American tribe, the Lumbee based in Robeson County.22
Dole is a member of the following U.S. Senate committees:
| Year | Republican | Votes | Pct | Democratic | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Elizabeth Dole | 1,248,664 | 53.6% | Erskine Bowles | 1,047,983 | 45% | Sean Haugh | Libertarian | 33,807 | 1.5% | Paul DeLaney | Write-In | 727 | 0.3% | ||||
| 2008 | Elizabeth Dole | 1,305,915 | 44% | Kay Hagan | 1,573,592 | 53% | Chris Cole | Libertarian |
| Find more about Elizabeth Dole on Wikipedia's sister projects: | |
|---|---|
 |
Dictionary definitions |
 |
Textbooks |
 |
Quotations |
 |
Source texts |
 |
Images and media |
 |
News stories |
 |
Learning resources |
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Andrew L. Lewis, Jr. |
United States Secretary of Transportation 1983 – 1987 Served Under: Ronald Reagan |
Succeeded by James H. Burnley IV |
| Preceded by Ann Dore McLaughlin |
United States Secretary of Labor 1989 – 1990 Served Under: George H.W. Bush |
Succeeded by Lynn Morley Martin |
| United States Senate | ||
| Preceded by Jesse Helms |
United States Senator (Class 2) from North Carolina January 7, 2003 - present Served alongside: John Edwards, Richard Burr |
Succeeded by Kay Hagan (elect) |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by George Allen |
Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee 2005 – 2007 |
Succeeded by John Ensign |
| Non-profit organization positions | ||
| Preceded by Richard Schubert |
President of the American Red Cross 1991 – 1999 |
Succeeded by Bernadine Healy |
| Order of precedence in the United States of America | ||
| Preceded by Lamar Alexander R-Tennessee |
United States Senators by seniority 75th |
Succeeded by John Cornyn R-Texas |
|
|||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| ||||||
