Comprehensive information and links about Elizabeth Dole

Elizabeth 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 chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

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 J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1965.

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 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).

She was United States Secretary of Transportation from 1983 to 1987 under Ronald Reagan. 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.

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

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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 . 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 [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.

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.