Dan Quayle
Vice President of the United States from 1989 to 1993
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Danforth Quayle (/kweɪl/ KWAYL; born February 4, 1947) is an American retired politician and US Army National guard veteran who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party, Quayle represented Indiana in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1981 and in the U.S. Senate from 1981 to 1989.
Dan Quayle | |
|---|---|
Official portrait, 1989 | |
| 44th Vice President of the United States | |
| In office January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993 | |
| President | George H. W. Bush |
| Preceded by | George H. W. Bush |
| Succeeded by | Al Gore |
| United States Senator from Indiana | |
| In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1989 | |
| Preceded by | Birch Bayh |
| Succeeded by | Dan Coats |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana's 4th district | |
| In office January 3, 1977 – January 3, 1981 | |
| Preceded by | Edward Roush |
| Succeeded by | Dan Coats |
| Personal details | |
| Born | James Danforth Quayle February 4, 1947 Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children |
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| Parent | James C. Quayle (father) Martha Pulliam (mother) |
| Relatives | Quayle Family |
| Education | DePauw University (BA) Indiana University, Indianapolis (JD) |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1969–1975 |
| Rank | Sergeant |
| Unit | Indiana Army National Guard |
A native of Indianapolis, Quayle spent most of his childhood in Paradise Valley, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. He married Marilyn Tucker in 1972 and obtained his J.D. degree from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 1974. He and Marilyn practiced law in Huntington, Indiana, before his election to the United States House of Representatives in 1976. In 1980, he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
In 1988, incumbent vice president and Republican presidential nominee George H. W. Bush chose Quayle as his running mate. His vice presidential debate against Lloyd Bentsen was notable for Bentsen's "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" quip. The Bush–Quayle ticket defeated the Democratic ticket of Michael Dukakis and Bentsen, and Quayle succeeded Bush as vice president in January 1989. At the age of 41, Quayle was the third-youngest vice president in U.S. history after Richard Nixon and John C. Breckinridge, a rank that would be beaten by 40-year-old JD Vance in 2025. During his tenure, Quayle made official visits to 47 countries and was appointed chairman of the National Space Council. As vice president, he developed a reputation for making comments that some media outlets perceived to be gaffes.[1][2][3][4] He secured re-nomination for vice president in 1992, but was defeated by the Democratic ticket of Bill Clinton and Al Gore. He was a supporter of free markets, deregulation and of supply-side economics.[5][6][7]
In 1994, Quayle published his memoir, Standing Firm. He declined to run for president in 1996 because of phlebitis. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 but withdrew his campaign early on and supported the eventual nominee, George W. Bush. He joined Cerberus Capital Management, a private-equity firm, in 1999. Since leaving office, Quayle has remained active in the Republican Party, including making presidential endorsements in 2000, 2012, 2016, and 2020. Quayle became the earliest-serving surviving vice president with the death of Walter Mondale in April 2021.
Early life and education
Quayle was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Martha Corinne (née Pulliam) and James Cline Quayle.[8] He has sometimes[9] been incorrectly referred to as James Danforth Quayle III. In his memoir he points out that his birth name was simply James Danforth Quayle. The name Quayle originates from the Isle of Man, where his great-grandfather was born.[10]
His maternal grandfather, Eugene C. Pulliam, was a wealthy and influential publishing magnate who founded Central Newspapers, Inc., and owned more than a dozen major newspapers, such as The Arizona Republic and The Indianapolis Star. James C. Quayle moved his family to Arizona in 1955 to run a branch of the family's publishing empire.
After spending much of his youth in Arizona,[11] Quayle returned to his native Indiana and graduated from Huntington North High School in Huntington in 1965. He then matriculated at DePauw University, where he received his B.A. degree in political science in 1969,[12] was the captain of the university golf team and a member of the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon (Psi Phi chapter).[13][14]
Military service and career (1969–1977)
After graduation, Quayle joined the Indiana National Guard and served from 1969 to 1975, reaching the rank of sergeant; his joining meant that he was not subject to the draft.[15] In 1970, while serving in the Guard, Quayle enrolled at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. He was admitted under a program for students who could demonstrate "special factors" as his grades did not meet the regular admission standards. In 1974, Quayle earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree.[16][17] At Indiana University, he met his future wife, Marilyn, who was taking night classes at the same law school at the time.[18]
Quayle became an investigator for the Consumer Protection Division of the Office of the Indiana attorney general in July 1971. Later that year, he became an administrative assistant to Governor Edgar Whitcomb. From 1973 to 1974, he was the director of the Inheritance Tax Division of the Indiana Department of Revenue. After graduating from law school in 1974, Quayle worked as associate publisher of his family's newspaper, the Huntington Herald-Press.
U.S. House of Representatives (1977-1981)
Elections
In 1976, Quayle was elected to the House of Representatives from Indiana's 4th congressional district, defeating eight-term incumbent Democrat J. Edward Roush by a 55%-to-45% margin.[19] He defeated Democratic challenger John D. Walda in 1978, winning 64% to 34%.[20] Quayle was then re-elected in 1978. He did not seek re-election in 1980 and instead ran a successful campaign for the United States Senate. Quayle was succeeded by Dan Coats.
Tenure
In November 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan of California invited Quayle to accompany him on a delegation to investigate unsafe conditions at the Jonestown settlement in Guyana, but Quayle was unable to participate. The decision likely saved Quayle's life, because Ryan and his entourage were subsequently murdered at the airstrip in Jonestown as the party tried to escape the massacre.[21]
Committee assignments
- United States House Committee on Small Business (95th and 96th Congresses)
- United States House Committee on Government Operations(95th Congress)
- United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs (96th Congress
U.S. Senate (1981-1989)
1980 campaign
In 1980, at age 33, Quayle became the youngest person ever elected to the Senate from the state of Indiana, defeating three-term incumbent Democrat Birch Bayh with 54% of the vote. Making Indiana political history again.
1986 campaign
Quayle was reelected to the Senate in 1986 with the largest margin ever achieved to that date by a candidate in a statewide Indiana race, taking 61% of the vote against his Democratic opponent, Jill Long.
Tenure
In 1986, Quayle was criticized for championing the cause of Daniel Anthony Manion, a candidate for a federal appellate judgeship, who was in law school one year ahead of Quayle. The American Bar Association had evaluated Manion as "qualified/unqualified", its lower passing grade.[22] Manion was nominated for the Seventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals by President Ronald Reagan on February 21, 1986, and confirmed by the Senate on June 26, 1986.[23] Quayle was active on Armed Services and Labor and Human Resources Committees, emphasizing defense strengthening, SDI, and job creation. One of his major legislative accomplishments was co-authoring the 1982 JTPA, which overhauled federal job training programs.
After being elected vice president in the 1988 United States presidential election, Dan Quayle resigned was succeeded when Indiana governor Robert D. Orr appointed Dan Coats to fill the remainder of Quayle's term..
Committee assignments
- United States Committee on Labor and Human Resources
- United States Committee on Armed Services
- United States Committee on Budget
- United States House Committee on Appropriations
Vice presidential campaigns
1988 election campaign
On August 16, 1988, at the Republican convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, George H. W. Bush chose Quayle to be his running mate in the 1988 United States presidential election. The choice immediately became controversial.[24] Outgoing president Reagan praised Quayle for his "energy and enthusiasm".[25] Press coverage of the convention was dominated by questions about "the three Quayle problems".[26] The questions involved his military service, a golf holiday in Florida where he and several other politicians shared a house with lobbyist Paula Parkinson,[27][15] and whether he had enough experience to be vice president. Quayle seemed at times rattled and at other times uncertain or evasive as he responded to questions.[26] Delegates to the convention generally blamed television and newspapers for the focus on Quayle's problems, but Bush's staff said they thought Quayle had mishandled the questions about his military record, leaving questions dangling.[24][26][28] Although Bush was trailing by up to 15 points in public opinion polls taken before the convention, in August the Bush–Quayle ticket took the lead,[29] which it did not relinquish for the rest of the campaign.
In the October 1988 vice-presidential debate, Quayle debated Democratic candidate Lloyd Bentsen. During the debate, Quayle's strategy was to criticize Dukakis as too liberal. When the debate turned to Quayle's relatively limited experience in public life, he compared the length of his congressional service (12 years) with that of President John F. Kennedy (14 years); Kennedy had less experience than his rivals during the 1960 presidential nomination. It was a factual comparison, although Quayle's advisers cautioned beforehand that it could be used against him. Bentsen's response—"I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy"—subsequently became a part of the political lexicon.[30]
The Bush–Quayle ticket won the November election by a 53–46 percent margin, sweeping 40 states and capturing 426 electoral votes. He was sworn in on January 20, 1989. Quayle cast no tie-breaking votes as president of the Senate, becoming only the second vice-president (after Charles W. Fairbanks) not to do so while serving a complete term.
Indiana National Guard controversy
Since the 1988 United States elections, Quayle has been the subject of controversy regarding his service in the Indiana National Guard from 1969 to 1975. Many of Quayle's political opponents, media outlets, and Vietnam veterans have speculated that Quayle joined the Indiana National Guard as a means to avoid the draft or to avoid being deployed to Vietnam. In August 1988, Quayle denied the accusations.[31] Quayle's draft controversy received renewed attention during the 1992 United States elections after Democratic nominee Bill Clinton was accused of similar draft dodging measures.[32] In September 1992, Quayle acknowledged that joining the Indiana National Guard cut his risks of being deployed to Vietnam, although he defended his decision.[33] In a 1992 interview with NBC's Meet the Press, Quayle was pressed on whether his main motivation was to avoid being sent to fight in Vietnam. Quayle stated that he had preferences for joining the reserves, and that he never asked for preferential treatment.[32] Quayle also noted that had his unit been called, he would have deployed, stating:
Of course you had much less chance to go to Vietnam, but my unit could have been called up to go to Vietnam. And had it been called up, I would have gone.[34]
In a resurfaced 1989 interview with David Hoffman, filmmaker and Vietnam veteran Oliver Stone commented on Quayle and made contrasts between him and then-Nebraska governor Bob Kerrey, noting:
I'm hopeful of people like Bob Kerrey, for example, [the] governor of Nebraska, would be a presidential candidate. He's about forty-two and lost a leg in Vietnam. [He's a] very bright man, compassionate, he's been there. I think he'd make a fine president. Against him would be a guy like Dan Quayle, who is also about the same age, early forties—a heartbeat away from the presidency—a man who has never really suffered pain—a man who went to the National Guard to avoid Vietnam, and yet he's one who always calls for military intervention in Central America, with other people's bodies. You have that hypocrisy at work.[35]
1992 re-election campaign
In the 1992 election, Bush and Quayle were challenged in their bid for reelection by the Democratic ticket of Arkansas governor Bill Clinton and Tennessee senator Al Gore and the independent ticket of Texas businessman Ross Perot and retired vice admiral James Stockdale.
As Bush lagged in the polls in the weeks preceding the August 1992 Republican National Convention, some Republican strategists (led by Secretary of State James Baker) viewed Quayle as a liability to the ticket and pushed for his replacement.[36] Quayle ultimately survived the challenge and secured re-nomination.[37]
During the 1992 presidential campaign, Quayle told the news media that he believed homosexuality was a choice, and "the wrong choice".[38]
Quayle faced off against Gore and Stockdale in the vice presidential debate on October 13, 1992.[39] He attempted to avoid the one-sided outcome of his debate with Bentsen four years earlier by staying on the offensive.[40] Quayle criticized Gore's book Earth in the Balance with specific page references, though his claims were subsequently criticized by the liberal group FAIR for inaccuracy.[41] In Quayle's closing argument, he sharply asked voters, "Do you really believe Bill Clinton will tell the truth?" and "Do you trust Bill Clinton to be your president?" Gore and Stockdale talked more about the policies and philosophies they espoused.[42] Republican loyalists were largely relieved and pleased with Quayle's performance, and his camp attempted to portray it as an upset triumph against a veteran debater, but post-debate polls were mixed on whether Gore or Quayle had won.[43] It ultimately proved to be a minor factor in the election, which Bush and Quayle lost, 168 electoral votes to 370 in a landslide.
Vice presidency (1989–1993)
Tenure
On January 20, 1989, at noon, Quayle became the 44th vice president of the United States, sworn into the office by justice Sandra Day O'Connor, making him the first vice president to be sworn in by a female justice of the Supreme Court.[44][45] During his vice presidency, Quayle made official trips to 47 countries.[11] Bush named Quayle head of the Council on Competitiveness and the first chairman of the National Space Council. As head of the NSC he called for greater efforts to protect Earth against the danger of potential asteroid impacts.[46]
After a briefing by Lt. General Daniel O. Graham, (USA Ret.), Max Hunter, and Jerry Pournelle, Quayle sponsored the development of an experimental Single Stage to Orbit X-Program, which resulted in the building of the McDonnell Douglas DC-X. Quayle has since described the vice presidency as "an awkward office. You're president of the Senate. You're not even officially part of the executive branch—you're part of the legislative branch. You're paid by the Senate, not by the executive branch. And it's the president's agenda. It's not your agenda. You're going to disagree from time to time, but you salute and carry out the orders the best you can".[47]
Murphy Brown
On May 19, 1992, Quayle gave a speech titled Reflections on Urban America to the Commonwealth Club of California on the subject of the Los Angeles riots.[48] In the speech he blamed the violence on a decay of moral values and family structure in American society.[48] In an aside, he cited the single mother title character in the television program Murphy Brown as an example of how popular culture contributes to this "poverty of values", saying, "It doesn't help matters when prime-time TV has Murphy Brown—a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid, professional woman—mocking the importance of fathers, by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another 'lifestyle choice'."[49]
The "Murphy Brown speech" became one of the most memorable of the 1992 campaign. Long after the outcry had ended, the comment continued to have an effect on U.S. politics. Stephanie Coontz, a professor of family history and the author of several books and essays about the history of marriage, said that this brief remark by Quayle about Murphy Brown "kicked off more than a decade of outcries against the 'collapse of the family'".[50] In 2002, Candice Bergen, the actress who played Brown, said "I never have really said much about the whole episode, which was endless, but his speech was a perfectly intelligent speech about fathers not being dispensable and nobody agreed with that more than I did." Others interpreted it differently; singer Tanya Tucker was widely quoted as saying "Who the hell is Dan Quayle to come after single mothers?"[51]
National Space Council
While serving as the first chairman, Quayle had advocated for greater efforts to protect Earth, from potential disaster's such as potential asteroid impacts. He had also sponsored the development of DC-X, an experimental single-stage to orbit rocket.
Perceived gaffes
Throughout his time as vice president, Quayle was characterized by some media outlets and journalists as being unprepared for the position. Given his position, his comments were heavily scrutinized for factual and grammatical errors. Contributing to this perception of Quayle was his tendency to make public statements that were either impossible ("I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future"[2]), self-contradictory ("I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy, but that could change"[52][better source needed]), self-contradictory and confused ("The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. ... No, not our nation's, but in World War II. I mean, we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century, but in this century's history"[3]), or just confused (such as the comments he made in a May 1989 address to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). Commenting on the UNCF's slogan—which is "a mind is a terrible thing to waste"—Quayle said, "You take the UNCF model that what a waste it is to lose one's mind or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is").[53][54]
On June 15, 1992, Quayle altered 12-year-old student William Figueroa's correct spelling of "potato" to "potatoe" at the Muñoz Rivera Elementary School spelling bee in Trenton, New Jersey.[55][56] He was the subject of widespread ridicule for his error. According to The New York Times[57] and Quayle's memoirs, he was relying on cards provided by the school, which Quayle says included the misspelling. Quayle said he was uncomfortable with the version he gave, but did so because he decided to trust the school's incorrect written materials instead of his own judgment.[58]
Post vice presidency (1993-present)
Quayle's tenure as Vice President of the United States was over after the First inauguration of Bill Clinton
Subsequent activities (1993–1999)
In 1993, Quayle became a trustee of the Hudson Institute.[59] From 1993 to January 1999, he served on the board of Central Newspapers, Inc.,[59] and from 1995 until January 1999, he headed the Campaign America political action committee.[59]
Quayle authored a 1994 memoir, Standing Firm, which became a bestseller. Quayle's second book, The American Family: Discovering the Values That Make Us Strong, was co-authored with Diane Medved and published in 1996.[59] He later published his third book Worth Fighting For, in 1999.
Quayle moved to Arizona in 1996.[60] He considered but decided against running for governor of Indiana in 1996, and decided against running for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination, citing health problems related to phlebitis.[61]
In 1997 and 1998, Quayle was a "distinguished visiting professor of international studies" at the Thunderbird School of Global Management.[59]
In 1999, Quayle joined Cerberus Capital Management, a multibillion-dollar private-equity firm, where he serves as chair of the company's Global Investments division.[62] As chair of the international advisory board of Cerberus Capital Management, he recruited former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, who would have been installed as chair if Cerberus had acquired Air Canada.[63]
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21st-century career
The Dan Quayle Center and Museum, in Huntington, Indiana, features information on Quayle and all U.S. vice presidents. Quayle is an honorary trustee emeritus of the Hudson Institute and president of Quayle and Associates. He has also been a member of the board of directors of Heckmann Corporation, a water-sector company, since the company's inception and serves as chair of the company's Compensation and Nominating & Governance Committees. Quayle is a director of Aozora Bank, based in Tokyo, Japan.[64] He has also been on the boards of directors of other companies, including K2 Sports, AmTran Inc., Central Newspapers Inc.,[65] BTC Inc.[66] and Carvana Co.[67]
Quayle, then working as an investment banker in Phoenix, was mentioned as a candidate for governor of Arizona before the 2002 election,[68] but declined to run.
On January 31, 2011, Quayle wrote a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to commute Jonathan Pollard's sentence.[69] In December 2011, Quayle endorsed Mitt Romney for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.[70]
In early 2014, Quayle traveled to Belfast, Northern Ireland, in an attempt to speed approval for a deal in which Cerberus acquired nearly £1.3 billion in Northern Ireland loans from the Republic of Ireland's National Asset Management Agency. The Irish government is investigating the deal, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York are investigating Quayle's involvement as a potentially "very serious" misuse of the vice president's office.[71] As of December 2018, Quayle served as chair of Global Investments at Cerberus.[72]
Events and services
Dan Quayle accompanied by his wife has attended the Inaugurations of Bill Clinton and Al Gore, George W. Bushand Dick Cheney, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Mike Pence, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the inauguration of Donald Trump and JD Vance.
Quayle and his wife also has attended the funeral services of presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, and the funeral services of vice presidents Spiro Agnew, Walter Mondale and Dick Cheney.
2000 presidential campaign
During a January 1999 appearance on Larry King Live, Quayle said he would run for president in 2000.[73] On January 28, 1999, he officially created an exploratory committee.[59] On April 14, 1999, at a rally held at his alma mater Huntington North High School's gymnasium, Quayle officially launched his campaign for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination.[59] In July 1999, he published his book Worth Fighting For.[59]
During campaign appearances, Quayle criticized fellow candidate George W. Bush. Early on, he criticized Bush's use of the term "compassionate conservative".[74]
By August, multiple news sources were stating that performing well in the Iowa Straw Poll, held on August 14, was crucial to Quayle's continuing candidacy. By August 9, Quayle had spent 39 days campaigning in the state, and he had attacked the Clinton administration's agriculture policies while campaigning in the largely agricultural state. Quayle, however, downplayed the importance of the poll and compared it to a political machine, where candidates "buy votes". Quayle also stated that he would continue his campaign regardless of his finish in the poll. On August 11, in an opinion poll conducted prior to the straw poll, Quayle received 5 percent of the vote, behind Bush (37 percent), Forbes (14.6 percent), and Dole (9 percent). The straw poll results were worse for Quayle, as they saw him finish in eighth place and behind several other conservative candidates. In total, he gathered 916 votes for 4 percent of the total, compared to Bush, the winner, who gathered 7,418 votes for 31 percent of the total. Following the straw poll, numerous news sources began to report that Quayle's campaign would be significantly hurt by the results, while Bush had solidified his frontrunner status. Kristol stated, "I think he should get out [of the race]. He's a good man, and he's served the country well, but it'd be better for him to get out now than to soldier on." However, Quayle remained in the race and continued to downplay the straw poll, stating in one interview that he participated "out of respect to the Iowa Republican Party". As late as September 9, journalist Adam Nagourney of The New York Times stated that Quayle receiving the Republican nomination remained "a realistic goal, if admittedly a difficult one". Meanwhile, Representative Roscoe Bartlett, who had just taken over as head of Quayle's campaign operations in Maryland, called his task in the campaign either "a profile in courage or an act of stupidity".
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On September 27, despite continued campaigning, multiple sources reported that, according to some of his advisors, Quayle was planning to drop out of the race. By this point in the race, Bush had firmly established himself as the frontrunner and had raised over $50 million compared to Quayle's $3.4 million. The following day, at a ballroom in the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, Quayle announced an end to his candidacy, citing a lack of funds and support. While he did not offer an endorsement for any other candidates, he stated his intent to help whoever gained the Republican nomination to succeed. On October 5, he appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, where he stated that he would be uninterested in becoming the Republican nominee's running mate. By 2000, Quayle had endorsed George W. Bush, who would go on to win the election and be inaugurated as president in 2001.
Quayle would be the last former vice president until fellow Hoosier Mike Pence in 2024 to not receive their party's nomination.
Political positions
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In December 2011, Quayle endorsed Mitt Romney for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.[70]
During the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, Quayle initially endorsed Jeb Bush.[75] After Bush failed to win the nomination, Quayle endorsed the eventual nominee Donald Trump;[76] Quayle was later seen visiting Trump at Trump Tower before Trump's inauguration.[77]
According to the book Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Quayle played a central role in advising fellow Hoosier and then-vice president Mike Pence to certify the 2020 presidential election following the Senate rules, rather than cooperate with a plan by then-president Trump that sought to overturn the election, before the 2021 Capitol attack.[78][79] Quayle attended President Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, 2021.[80]
In 2025, Quayle attended former president Jimmy Carter's funeral on January 9,[81] President Trump's second inauguration on January 20,[82] and former vice president Dick Cheney's funeral on November 20.[83] He was the only former vice president and the highest ranking official to vote for Donald Trump in the 2024 United States presidential election[84]
Quayle supported traditional marriage structures. He famously criticized the TV character Murphy Brown for having a child out of wedlock, sparking national debate on cultural values.
In office, Quayle focused on job creation through free-market principles and was a strong supporter in the Reagan-Bush tax-reform policies.
Personal life
Dan Quayle met Marilyn Quayle, in 1972 when the two were attending night classes at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. The pair were assigned to work on a project with one another involving the revision of Indiana's death penalty laws, which sparked a quick courtship. After only ten weeks the couple married on November 18, 1972. Together they had three children, Tucker, Corrine and Benjamin Quayle. The Quayle's currently reside in Paradise Valley, Arizona
Their son Ben Quayle served in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 until 2013 when he lost re-nomination in the Republican primary to David Schweikert after redistricting.
Public image
Throughout his political career Dan Quayle has been a traditional conservative. During his vice presidency, Quayle had been unpopular and lack of intelligence was noted. After his vice presidency, he has been consistently ranked on the bottom tier of United States vice presidents compared to one another.
Throughout the years his popularity has gotten stronger and he has became more popular. Quayle is often known as the most forgotten vice president. Modern polling shows that he has a fame level of 67% and a popularity of 17%.
Electoral history
Quayle began his political career in 1976 by unseating incumbent Democratic representative J. Edward Roush. He won a second term against John D. Walda. After serving two terms in the House, Quayle upset three-term incumbent Democratic senator Birch Bayh as part of a Republican landslide. In 1986, he won a second term in a landslide victory against Jill Long.
In 1988, Quayle was chosen by then-vice president George H. W. Bush to serve as his running mate in the 1988 presidential election. Quayle and Bush won the election, defeating Democrats Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis and Texas senator Lloyd Bentsen, taking office on January 20, 1989. He and Bush ran for reelection but were defeated in the 1992 presidential election by Arkansas covernor Bill Clinton and Tennessee senator Al Gore. Quayle considered a presidential bid in 1996 before unsuccessfully seeking the Republican nomination in 2000.
Published material
- Standing Firm: A Vice-Presidential Memoir, HarperCollins, May 1994. Hardcover. ISBN 0-06-017758-6; mass market paperback, May 1995; ISBN 0-06-109390-4; limited edition, 1994. ISBN 0-06-017601-6.
- The American Family: Discovering the Values That Make Us Strong (with Diane Medved), Harpercollins, April 1996. ISBN 0-06-017378-5 (hardcover). ISBN 0-06-092810-7 (paperback).
- Worth Fighting For, W Publishing Group, July 1999. ISBN 0-8499-1606-2.
External videos 
Booknotes interview with Quayle on Standing Firm, July 24, 1994, C-SPAN
| External videos | |
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 Booknotes interview with Quayle on Standing Firm, July 24, 1994, C-SPAN |
