Elizabeth Dole facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Elizabeth Dole
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Official portrait, 2003
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| United States Senator from North Carolina |
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| In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2009 |
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| Preceded by | Jesse Helms |
| Succeeded by | Kay Hagan |
| Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee | |
| In office January 3, 2005 – January 3, 2007 |
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| Leader | Bill Frist |
| Preceded by | George Allen |
| Succeeded by | John Ensign |
| 20th United States Secretary of Labor | |
| In office January 25, 1989 – November 23, 1990 |
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| President | George H. W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Ann McLaughlin Korologos |
| Succeeded by | Lynn Morley Martin |
| 8th United States Secretary of Transportation | |
| In office February 7, 1983 – September 30, 1987 |
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| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Drew Lewis |
| Succeeded by | James H. Burnley IV |
| Director of the Office of Public Liaison | |
| In office January 20, 1981 – February 7, 1983 |
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| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Anne Wexler |
| Succeeded by | Faith Whittlesey |
| Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission | |
| In office December 4, 1973 – March 9, 1979 |
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| Appointed by | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | Mary Gardiner Jones |
| Succeeded by | Patricia Bailey |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Mary Elizabeth Alexander Hanford
July 29, 1936 Salisbury, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican (1975–present) |
| Other political affiliations |
Democratic (before 1975) |
| Spouse | |
| Education | Duke University (BA) Harvard University (MEd, JD) |
| Signature |  |
Mary Elizabeth Alexander Dole (née Hanford; born July 29, 1936) is an American attorney, author, and politician who served as a United States Senator from North Carolina from 2003 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served in five presidential administrations, including as U.S. Secretary of Transportation under President Ronald Reagan from 1983 to 1987 and as U.S. Secretary of Labor under Reagan's successor, George H. W. Bush, from 1989 until 1990. Dole then left government to serve as president of the American Red Cross from 1991 to 1999; she departed from that position to seek the Republican nomination in the 2000 presidential election but eventually withdrew from the race.
Dole graduated from Duke University in 1958 and earned a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1965. Throughout her public career, she was the first woman to hold a number of positions, including secretary of transportation, becoming the first woman to serve in two different presidential cabinet positions for two presidents after being appointed secretary of labor, as well as the first female U.S. senator from North Carolina and chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She was also the third female secretary of labor and just the second woman to lead the American Red Cross since its founder, Clara Barton. She is the widow of U.S. Senator Bob Dole from Kansas, who served as the Republican Senate leader and was the party's presidential nominee in the 1996 election and vice presidential nominee in the 1976 election.
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Early life and education
Dole was born Mary Elizabeth Alexander Hanford in Salisbury, North Carolina, to Mary Ella (née Cathey; 1901–2004) and John Van Hanford (1893–1978).
Dole attended Duke University and graduated with distinction in political science on June 2, 1958. She was a finalist for an Angier B. Duke scholarship, a full-tuition award given to outstanding applicants who matriculate at Duke. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was a recipient of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, a national prize given to those exemplifying the ideal of service to others.
Among her activities at Duke were the chapel choir, Chanticleer (yearbook) business staff, freshman advisory council, the Order of the White Duchy (a local honorary society for outstanding women student leaders, a female counterpart of the Order of the Red Friars), Phi Kappa Delta (a local leadership honorary for senior women), and Pi Sigma Alpha (a national political-science honorary society). Dole is a sister of Delta Delta Delta. She was also elected president of the woman's student government association, 1958 May queen, and "leader of the year" by the student newspaper, The Chronicle. Dole has remained involved with Duke University, serving at various points in time as president of the Duke University alumnae association, and a member of the board of trustees and board of visitors. She has spoken formally at Duke several times.
Following her graduation from Duke, she did her post-graduate work at Oxford in 1959. After Oxford, she took a job as a student teacher at Melrose High School in Melrose, Massachusetts, for the 1959–1960 school year. While teaching, she also pursued her master's degree in education from Harvard University, which she earned in 1960, followed by a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1965. At graduation, she was one of 24 women in a class of 550 students. She is an alumna of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.
White House years
Johnson Administration
Dole, who had campaigned for the Kennedy–Johnson presidential ticket in 1960, began working in 1967 as a staff assistant to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.
Nixon and Ford Administrations
When many Democrats left the White House following Richard Nixon's replacement of Johnson, Dole did not. From 1969 to 1973, she 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.
Dole first met her future husband, Bob Dole, in the spring of 1972 at a meeting arranged by her boss and mentor, Virginia Knauer. The couple dated, and she became his second wife on December 6, 1975, in the Washington National Cathedral. They had no children, though she is stepmother to Bob's adult daughter Robin from his first marriage of 24 years, which ended in divorce in 1972. She attended individually, and later with her husband, the Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., before joining the National Presbyterian Church in 1996. Articles at the time reported that the Doles stopped attending Foundry in 1995, finding the pastor at the time, J. Philip Wogaman, too liberal.
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. During the 1970s, Dole was a self-described member of the Women's Liberation Movement and helped reform laws to ensure equal credit for women. She was also a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Reagan Administration and Secretary of Transportation
She served as director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, from 1981 to 1983 and as United States Secretary of Transportation from 1983 to 1987 under Ronald Reagan. She was also appointed by Reagan to chair task forces that sought to reform federal and state laws to ensure equal rights for women. She was the first woman appointed Secretary of Transportation. 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 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mandated the installation of a center high-mounted stop lamp on new cars; these are sometimes called "Liddy Lights" in her recognition. She worked to pass laws withholding federal highway funding from any state that had a drinking age below 21.
Bush Administration and Secretary of Labor
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. Her tenure as both U.S. Transportation Secretary and U.S. Labor Secretary focused heavily on improving public safety and workplace safety and health.
American Red Cross presidency
In 1991, Dole became the president of the American Red Cross. She served until 1999. She was the second woman to serve as president since Clara Barton founded the organization in 1881. She restructured the world's largest humanitarian organization during her eight years as president, serving as a volunteer in her first year. She also led a transformation of the way the Red Cross collects, tests, and distributes one-half of the nation's blood supply.
1996 Republican National Convention
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, or the Second Lady of the United States, had Gerald Ford won the 1976 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.
2000 United States Presidential candidacy
Elizabeth Dole ran for the Republican nomination in the 2000 United States presidential election.
Speculation of a presidential campaign became widespread after Dole announced her departure from her job as president of the Red Cross on January 4, 1999.
Dole announced she was forming an exploratory committee on March 10, 1999.
While Dole had been an active participant in her husband's campaign four years prior, he was largely absent from the campaign trail during her campaign.
In August, 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.
Dole withdrew from race in October 1999 before any of the primaries, largely due to inadequate fundraising even though a Gallup poll had her in second place in the presidential race at 11% behind George W. Bush at 60% as late as October 1999.
2000 vice presidential vetting
Shortly before the 2000 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, and former Missouri Senator John Danforth. 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.
United States Senate career
Dole's voting record was somewhat more conservative than that of her husband, though slightly less conservative than that of Helms. She has a lifetime rating of 92 from the American Conservative Union.
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.
In September 2008, Dole joined the Gang of 20, a bipartisan group working towards comprehensive energy reform, which pushed for a bill that would encourage state-by-state decisions on offshore drilling and authorize billions of dollars for conservation and alternative energy.
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. In 2007, she sponsored legislation which would have granted federal recognition of a North Carolina Native American tribe, the Lumbee based in Robeson County.
Committee assignments
Dole was a member of the following U.S. Senate committees:
- U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services
- Emerging Threats and Capabilities
- Personnel
- Readiness and Management Support
- U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
- Financial Institutions
- Housing, Transportation, and Community Development
- Security and International Trade and Finance
- U.S. Senate Select Committee on Aging
- U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
After politics: Elizabeth Dole Foundation
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In 2012, Dole established the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, dedicated to helping caregivers of "wounded warriors".
Dole commissioned the RAND Corporation to develop the first nationwide comprehensive, evidence-based report on the needs of military and veteran caregivers. The two-year study includes an environmental scan of available services, a gap analysis, and recommendations for meeting the enormous challenges of America's hidden helpers – the young spouses, mothers, fathers and other loved ones caring for those who cared for us. The study was generously supported by the Wounded Warrior Project, the Lilly Endowment, and the Cannon Foundation.
The Foundation selects military and veteran caregivers from each state to serve a two-year Fellowship with the Foundation. The Dole Fellows represent a vast array of military caregivers: spouses, parents, siblings and friends, and use their voice to help bring awareness on a national scale. The Foundation also has a National Coalition Program to bring together private and public entities to create substantial change. in 2022 the foundation selected and began working with the civil rights icon and veteran Bobby Grier.
Actor Tom Hanks joined the Foundation's Hidden Heroes Campaign to bring awareness to the over 5.5 million military caregivers across America who are facing enormous challenges every day caring for members of the military and gravely injured veterans.
Books
Author
- The book was first released during Bob Dole's presidential candidacy. (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
Subject
- Lucas, Eileen (1998) Elizabeth Dole: A Leader In Washington. The Millbrook Press. ISBN: 0-7613-0203-4
- Wertheimer, Molly Meijer and Gutgold, Nichola D. (2004) Elizabeth Hanford Dole: Speaking from the Heart. Praeger Publishers. ISBN: 0-275-98378-1 online
Charity work
Dole accepted no salary from the Red Cross during her first year as president of the organization.
Dole is an Honorary Board Member of the humanitarian organization Wings of Hope.
Awards
In 1995, Dole was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
In 1999, Dole received the S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.
In 2014, Dole was inducted into Indiana Wesleyan University's Society of World Changers for her humanitarian public service efforts.
In July 2018, Dole was honored with the 4th annual Leo K. Thorsness Leadership Award. Named after the Medal of Honor recipient, the award recognizes outstanding service to veteran communities.
In September 2023, Dole was awarded the United States Military Academies highest civilian award, the Sylvanus Thayer Award. Named after the father of the academy, the award recognizes outstanding selfless service to the nation.
See also
In Spanish: Elizabeth Dole para niños
