Dole, Bob (Robert Joseph Dole), 1923–, American political leader, b. Russell, Kan.; husband of Elizabeth Hanford Dole Dole, Elizabeth Hanford, 1936–, American public official, b. Salisbury, N.C., B.A., Duke Univ., 1958, J.D., Harvard, 1965; wife of Bob Dole . A Republican, she held several government positions including commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission
..... Click the link for more information. . While serving in World War II, he was seriously wounded and required several years of convalescence. After obtaining his law degree from Washburn Univ. (1952), he worked as a county attorney. In 1960 he was elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives and served four terms (1961–69); he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1968. He was chairman of the Republican National Committee (1971–73), and in 1976 Dole was President Gerald Ford Ford, Gerald Rudolph, 1913–2006, 38th president of the United States (1974–77), b. Omaha, Nebr. He was originally named Leslie Lynch King, Jr., but his parents were divorced when he was two, and when his mother remarried he assumed the name of his
..... Click the link for more information. 's running mate.

Dole served as majority leader of the Senate (1985–87, 1995–96) and as minority leader (1987–95), gaining a reputation as a pragmatic conservative with an acerbic wit. In 1980 and 1988 Dole ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination. In 1995 he again announced his candidacy for his party's presidential nomination, and he subsequently triumphed in the primaries. In June, 1996, Dole resigned from the Senate in order to devote more time to the presidential race, and in August he chose Jack Kemp Kemp, Jack French, 1935–, American politician and government official, b. Los Angeles. He played football while at Occidental College (grad. 1957) and thereafter was a professional quarterback for 13 seasons (1957–69), primarily with the San Diego
..... Click the link for more information. as his running mate. He proved unable to reduce President Clinton's significant lead in the popular vote, however, and was soundly defeated in the November elections. In 2007, President George W. Bush selected Dole to co-chair a commission charged with investigating problems in the military health-care system.

Bibliography

See his One Soldier's Story: A Memoir (2005).

Dole, Bob

in full Robert Joseph Dole

(born July 22, 1923, Russell, Kan., U.S.) U.S. politician. Seriously wounded while fighting in World War II, he recovered from near-total paralysis but permanently lost the use of his right arm and hand. He returned to Kansas, earned a law degree, and held state elective office as a Republican before serving in the U.S. House of Representatives (1961–69) and the Senate (1969–96). He was the running mate of Pres. Gerald R. Ford in 1976. In 1984 Dole became Republican Party leader in the Senate, and he twice served as majority leader (1984–86, 1994–96). After clinching his party's nomination for president in 1996, he retired from the Senate to devote himself wholly to the campaign. He was defeated in the election by Democrat Bill Clinton. His wife, Elizabeth Hanford Dole (born 1936), ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 2000 but was elected to the U.S. Senate from North Carolina in 2002.