Robert J. Dole (born 1923) of Kansas represented that state in the Senate from 1968 until 1996. He served as Republican National Committee chair under President Richard Nixon and was Gerald Ford's running mate in 1976. As Senate majority leader during the second administration of President Ronald Reagan and again from 1994 to 1996, Dole was an articulate spokesperson for Republican policies. Dole won the Republican presidential nomination in 1996, but lost the general election to the incumbent president, Bill Clinton.

Born in a one bedroom home in the small Kansas town of Russell on July 22, 1923, Robert J. Dole knew the hard scrabble life of Plains states' folks at first hand. Doran, his father, ran a grain elevator while his mother, Tina (Talbott), sold sewing machines. Dole and his three siblings grew up in a larger, more comfortable home than he had been born in, but his parents rented the upper floor to earn extra...