STATEMENT: AFPI President and CEO Brooke Rollins on Bob Dole’s Passing

Washington, D.C. – The passing of Senator Bob Dole marks the end of a lifetime of faithful service. As a United States Senator in four distinct decades, he made himself into a giant of that distinguished institution. For that alone, he will be remembered as a pivotal figure of America’s twentieth century. As a Vice Presidential nominee, and then as a Presidential nominee, he offered America a vision of its best self — in both cases, a road not taken that in time saw the visionary vindicated in full. Senator Dole was a man of the heartland who brought its values and priorities to Washington, D.C., mastering the latter while keeping faith with the former.

Bob Dole will be remembered for one more thing, perhaps surpassing the others. As a young man, he willingly joined the millions of Americans who put themselves in harm’s way to defeat the Axis. On a battlefield in Italy, facing down the forces of the Third Reich, Bob Dole was grievously wounded. He survived, and because of men like him, his cause prevailed. In his passing we remember him, and those like him — the heroic generation who left home and comfort in small towns like Russell, Kansas, and went forth to save the world.

Senator Bob Dole, an American in full: 1923-2021.