Dole, Robert

Dole, Robert

(1923– ) U.S. representative/senator; born in Russell, Kans. After serving in the army during World War II (during which his right arm was permanently crippled in combat), he became a lawyer. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (Rep., Kans.; 1961–69), and to the U.S. Senate (1969). From 1971–73 he served as national chairman of the Republican Party, in which office he defended President Nixon's Vietnam War policies and his role in the Watergate Scandal. Generally conservative, he was Gerald Ford's running mate in 1976, and ran unsuccessfully for his party's presidential nomination in 1988. As Senate majority leader (1985–87), he backed the Reagan administration's foreign and domestic policies. He became minority leader after Republicans lost control of the Senate and majority leader again when they regained it (1995).