Three-time presidential candidate and former Republican Senator Bob Dole dies in his sleep at 98

Former Republican Senator Bob Dole died at the age of 98 Sunday morning.

‘It is with heavy hearts we announce that Senator Robert Joseph Dole died early this morning in his sleep,’ the Elizabeth Dole Foundation tweeted on Sunday.

‘At his death, at age 98, he had served the United States of America faithfully for 79 years. More information coming soon,’ the statement continues.

Dole served in the Senate for 27 years and was the Republican presidential nominee in 1996, losing to incumbent Bill Clinton.

He represented Kansas in the Senate and during the final 11 years of his tenure served as the Republican Leader of the upper chamber, which included three nonconsecutive years as Senate Majority Leader.

First entering politics as a member of the Kansas House of Representatives in 1951, Dole then served as a County Attorney there before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Dole leaves behind his wife Elizabeth, 85, and daughter Robin, 67. 

Born in Russell, Kansas in 1923, Dole joined thousands of young men in his time by signing up to fight in World War II as part of the Army reserves.

He was deployed to Italy as a second lieutenant in 1944 where he was nearly killed by a German explosive during combat in the mountainous Apennine region.

In 1945 Dole led the assault near Castel D’Aiano and was struck just as he was helping a fallen soldier.

‘As the mortar round, exploding shell, or machine gun blast – whatever its was, I’ll never know – ripped into my body, I recoiled, lifted off the ground a bit, twisted in the air, and fell face down in the dirt,’ Dole recounted in his autobiography One Soldier’s Story.

He waited an agonizing nine hours before medics could evacuate him to a local field hospital.

Once back home Dole was forced to undergo multiple surgeries and three years of rehabilitation, and never fully regained function in his right arm, only able to move his fingers. For the rest of his public life he carried a pen in that hand to make it appear more normal and deter people from shaking hands with him on that side.