Elizabeth Dole, Woman's College '58 and candidate for one of North Carolina's U.S. Senate seats, will hold a campaign rally in Page Auditorium at 3 p.m. this afternoon.
Dole graduated with distinction from Duke and went on to earn law and government degrees from Harvard University. Her government career included stints as U.S. Secretary of Transportation under President Ronald Reagan and U.S. Secretary of Labor under President George H. W. Bush. Throughout the 1990s, she worked as President of the American Red Cross, traveling to places such as Somalia and Kuwait on humanitarian relief missions. Dole sought the Republican presidential nomination for the 2000 election, becoming one of the first major female candidates for the office. Her husband, retired Senator Robert Dole, is also a former presidential candidate.
Dole favors the elimination of the "death tax," a tax on the estates of the deceased, and also favors making permanent Bush's tax relief plan, passed last year. She also advocates trade laws to protect North Carolina's manufacturing base and the creation of flexible grants that would allow workers displaced by foreign competition to become more educated. Dole says she will argue for higher pay and better benefits for military personnel and for establishing more local control over public education.
If she wins the Republican nomination Sept. 10, she will likely face Erskine Bowles in the general election, who once served as President Bill Clinton's chief of staff, or Dan Blue, a member of North Carolina's General Assembly.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.