Bob Dole, Former Senator And GOP Presidential Candidate, Dies At 98

Bob Dole, the long-serving Kansas senator who was the Republican Party’s nominee for vice president in 1976 and president in 1996, has passed away at the age of 98.

War Hero Turned Legislator: Robert Joseph Dole was born July 22, 1923, in Russell, Kansas. He enrolled in the University of Kansas in the fall of 1941, but left school in 1942 to join the U.S. Army’s Enlisted Reserve Corps.

Dole was seriously injured in combat that left him paralyzed from the neck down. Army doctors initially feared he would not survive, but Dole underwent multiple operations that left him with limited use of his right arm and permanent numbness in his left arm. He received two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for his military service and left the service with the rank of captain.

Following his return to civilian life, Dole resumed his education at the University of Arizona in 1948 before transferring in 1949 to Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, graduating with both undergraduate and law degrees in 1952.

While still in school, he was elected to a two-year term in the Kansas House of Representatives. After graduation, he become County Attorney in Kansas’ Russell County. He successfully sought elected office to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1960 and was re-elected three times before winning a U.S. Senate seat from Kansas in 1968.

A National Figure: Dole first gained nationwide prominence as chairman of the National Republican Committee, serving from 1971 to 1973. In 1976, President Gerald Ford tapped him to be his running mate in the national election after incumbent Vice President Nelson Rockefeller cited his desire to retire from politics. Ford and Dole were defeated in the election by former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter and Minnesota’s Sen. Walter Mondale.

Dole would seek the Republican nomination for president on three different occasions, but his moderate voting record in the Senate seemed out of touch to a Republican Party that was growing more conservative. He lost the nomination to Ronald Reagan in 1980 and to George H.W. Bush in 1988. He gained the nomination in 1996 at the age of 73 and chose Jack Kemp, a conservative congressman from upstate New York, to appeal to more right-wing voters. Dole resigned from the Senate in 1996 to concentrate on his campaign, but was defeated by President Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign.

Post-Political Life: Clinton would award Dole the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1997 and a Congressional Gold Medal in 2018. He appeared as a spokesperson for several popular consumer brands, including Viagra and Pepsi-Cola – the latter offered him in a playfully unlikely teaming with Britney Spears.

Dole remained in the Washington as a prominent lawyer-lobbyist and was the only living Republican presidential nominee to endorse Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. After the election, Dole arranged for Trump to receive a congratulatory call from Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, which infuriated the Chinese Communist Party leadership.

Dole was cognizant of his presence in public life, but never allowed his authority to cloud his judgment. As he once observed: “When it's all over, it's not who you were – it's whether you made a difference.”

Photo: Bob Dole at the 2004 dedication of the Robert J. Dole Community Center at Kansas' McConnell Air Force Base. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.