Sen. Elizabeth Dole

Elizabeth Hanford "Liddy" 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.

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.

This official portrait of Elizabeth Dole hangs in the Department of Labor

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. 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 and United States Secretary of Labor from 1989 to 1990 under George H. W. Bush.

From 1991 to 2000 she was president of the American Red Cross.

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 on account of inadequate fundraising. Dole did place third in a large field in the Iowa Straw Poll. The Iowa Straw Poll is the first, non-binding, test of electability for the GOP nomination. She finished behind George W. Bush and Steve Forbes.

In 2002 she sought election to the Senate from North Carolina. She defeated her Democratic opponent Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff to Bill Clinton. The Republican nomination for the seat was made available by the retirement of Jesse Helms.

In November of 2004, following Republican gains in the United States Senate, Dole became chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, placing her in the top Republican Senate leadership. She narrowly edged out Senator Norm Coleman for the post. According to www.race2008.net, she is seen as a possible Vice Presidential nominee for the GOP in 2008.

Books

Unlimited Partners: Our American Story (written with Bob Dole) (1996).