Former U.S. Senator Bob Dole greets the coffin of former U.S. President George HW Bush at the U.S. Capitol Roundabout on December 4, 2018 in Washington, DC.
Alex Edleman | AFP | Getty Images
Bob Dole, the former U.S. senator and Republican presidential candidate, announced Thursday that he has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.
“My first treatment will begin on Monday. While I’m sure I have some hurdles ahead of me, I also know I’m joining millions of Americans facing significant health issues,” Dole said in a statement.
Dole, 97, served as a U.S. senator from Kansas for nearly 30 years.
He was also a vice presidential candidate for Gerald Ford in his 1976 campaign and soon after tested the waters in the Republican presidential primary in 1980.
Dole won the GOP presidential nomination in 1996, but fell short of Bill Clinton in the successful Democratic candidacy. Conservative H. Ross Perot presented a third-party contest in the election.
Dole supported Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign and told PBS NewsHour that Trump “is a strong leader and is someone who can work with Congress. There are many similarities between my days in the Senate and what Donald proposes. “
More recently, Dole said he felt the Presidential Debate Commission treated Trump unfairly during the 2020 presidential debates.