Elizabeth Dole

American senator (2003–9)

  • Born: July 29, 1936
  • Place of Birth: Salisbury, North Carolina

Dole worked with five US presidents, holding federal positions such as secretary of transportation and secretary of labor, and served as president of the American Red Cross. She was elected to the Senate in 2002 and served from 2003 to 2009.

Early Life

Elizabeth Dole was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, to John and Mary Hanford. Her father was a wealthy importer of floral products. She had one brother, John, whom she admired. She grew up in a comfortable upper-middle-class home in Salisbury, a midsize town in the Piedmont region. She and her family attended the local Methodist Church.

In her early childhood, Dole was the person to whom other neighborhood children looked for leadership. At the age of six she organized a book club and named herself president. As a Girl Scout during World War II, she helped make contributions to the war effort. Dole loved school and excelled. She participated in all school functions and took piano and ballet lessons throughout her school years. She graduated from high school in 1954 and followed in her brother’s footsteps by attending Duke University. Dole’s mother had wanted her to study home economics, but Dole decided instead to major in political science.

At Duke, Dole was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority and participated in student government. During her senior year she was elected president of the student body, was named the May Queen, and received the Leader of the Year Award. She was an outstanding scholar and earned the Phi Beta Kappa key. She graduated with honors from Duke in 1958. In the summer of 1959 she attended Oxford University, and the following year she earned her MA in education from Harvard University. She then entered Harvard Law School, a decision that concerned her mother because she had hoped her daughter would marry and build a home on the lot beside her residence in Salisbury. After earning her law degree in 1965, Dole relocated to Washington, DC, and began her career in government service.

Life’s Work

Dole was admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia in 1966. A registered Democrat, she became involved in Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society program by taking a position as an undersecretary staff member who worked on issues involving people with disabilities with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. In 1967–68 she practiced law and represented clients in extreme poverty in the Washington area. Johnson, in April 1968, appointed her to a position in the Office of Consumer Affairs. She continued in this position when Richard M. Nixon became president in 1969 but switched her party affiliation from Democrat to Independent. Nixon also appointed her to the five-member nonpartisan Federal Trade Commission. She served on the commission from 1973 to 1979.

While working as a deputy to Nixon’s special assistant for consumer affairs in 1974, Dole met Senator Bob Dole, and they soon began dating. Before marrying on December 26, 1975, she again switched her party affiliation, from Independent to Republican. Their marriage created much media interest, and the Doles became known as one of the most famous power couples in Washington. Dole helped in her husband’s campaign as President Gerald Ford’s vice presidential running mate in 1976, but Ford lost to Jimmy Carter.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed Dole assistant to the President’s Office of Consumer Affairs, Public Liaison. In February 1983, she was appointed secretary of transportation, becoming the first woman to hold that position. This Department of Transportation (DOT) appointment also made her the first woman to hold a high-level position with the military, as the office included jurisdiction over the Coast Guard. As the top consumer safety enforcer in the country, she instituted requirements for a third brake light and air bags on all automobiles. She secured federal funding for the restoration of Union Station in Washington, DC, helped strengthen urban mass-transit systems, improved Amtrak and Conrail transit, hired more aviation inspectors, and lobbied for the extension of the age limit for drinking from eighteen to twenty-one. She also appointed more women to the DOT and provided day care centers for DOT employees so that more women could work with the agency.

A devout Methodist, Dole kept her religious views private until she gave her public testimonial at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1982. After the event she gladly spoke to church groups and was embraced by the Christian Right. She resigned as secretary of transportation in 1987 to help with her husband’s presidential campaign. She was an excellent public speaker and could motivate crowds. However, George H. W. Bush was selected the Republican nominee over Bob Dole. In 1989, Bush appointed Dole the secretary of labor. As secretary she worked on efforts to break the glass ceiling that kept women from obtaining executive positions, helped raise the minimum wage, and helped settle a United Mine Workers strike.

In 1990 she resigned as labor secretary to become president of the American Red Cross, becoming only the second woman to hold this position since its founder, Clara Barton, in the nineteenth century. During her tenure with the Red Cross, Dole worked to keep the nation’s blood supply safe from contamination by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), worked on disaster and famine relief worldwide, and helped to provide aid to war refugees in Somalia, Croatia, and Rwanda. She lobbied Americans to increase their contributions to humanitarian organizations.

Dole took a leave of absence from the Red Cross in 1996, again to help with her husband’s unsuccessful campaign for the White House. In 1997 she resumed her position at the Red Cross and worked to streamline the agency for better emergency preparedness. In 1998 she resigned her position and ran for the US presidency in the lead-up to the 2000 election, placing third in the Iowa caucus behind George W. Bush and Steve Forbes. She left the race in October 1999 and was considered a top vice presidential contender. However, much to the surprise of many in politics, Republican nominee Bush instead selected Dick Cheney as his running mate.

After this unsuccessful bid for the presidency, Dole began her run for the Senate seat representing North Carolina. In the 2002 election she beat the Democratic contender, Erskine Bowles, with 54 percent of the vote, and made the transition from being a political appointee in civil service, representing national interests, to being an elected politician representing her state’s constituents. During her tenure in the Senate, Dole served on various committees, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee, for which she was chair from 2005 to 2007. She ran for reelection in 2008 but was ultimately unsuccessful.

In the years following her departure from the Senate, Dole devoted herself to various philanthropic endeavors. Particularly concerned with the needs of veterans, military families, and caregivers, in 2012 Dole established the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, which provides grants and other support to nonprofit organizations that assist such individuals. In November 2021, she attended a White House event, focused on advocating on behalf of service members' family caregivers, held as part of First Lady Jill Biden's Joining Forces initiative, which she supported. This event occurred shortly before the death of Bob Dole on December 5.

After receiving the Sylvanus Thayer Award in 2023 from the US Military Academy at West Point in recognition of her national service, she was one of the honorees chosen by President Joe Biden for a 2024 Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Significance

According to a 1999 Gallup poll, Dole was chosen as one of the ten most-recognized women in the world. Although her life in politics has been a national one, her position as president of the American Red Cross extended her reach to a global stage.

Beginning her career as a Democrat, Dole would twice change political affiliations to become a Republican, running her campaign for presidency as a centrist policymaker and as a leader with experience on the international front. As senator, the first woman to represent North Carolina as such, she worked to obtain federal recognition for the Lumbee Indians of North Carolina and served on the banking, military, and education committees. She encouraged industrial development and increased federal funding for public-works projects in her state. Her philanthropic efforts continued following her departure from the Senate, demonstrating her commitment to public service.

Bibliography

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