Sen. Bob Dole and Immigration Policy Issue Change in the Republican Party

May 15, 2025 - Features

by Jack McGovern | Dole Archives Research Fellow

 


Jack McGovern, a Ph.D. candidate at Northwestern University, was awarded the 2024 Dole Archives Research Fellowship to support research at the Dole Archives related to immigration policy position changes in the Republican Party from 1965-2024. Photo by Jackson DeAndrea.

 


 

I first learned of the Research Fellowship offered by the Robert and Elizabeth Dole Archives and Special Collections shortly after I had discussed my tentative plans to travel to presidential libraries with my dissertation advisor. As a graduate student, you often receive emails from your department about fellowship and grant opportunities. The vast majority are geared towards topics far outside your scope or would require you to twist your project to qualify. But every now and then, the perfect opportunity comes along, and the question becomes: are you ready to take it?

I knew the fellowship was the perfect opportunity, and I knew I would be ready to prepare a competitive application. My excitement only grew as I looked at the Dole Archives’ finding aids for its various collections and realized how unique and well-organized the Dole papers are.

 


While researching at the Dole Archives, McGovern viewed manuscripts from the Dole Presidential Campaign Collection, including this briefing memo from the 1996 Presidential Campaign. Photo by Jackson DeAndrea.

 

My dissertation research at Northwestern University in the political science department focuses on the politics of Republican immigration policymaking from 1965 to 2024. Specifically, I want to know why past Republican presidents like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were generally supportive of immigration, while President Donald Trump has made opposition to immigration his signature issue.

From secondary literature and my preliminary analysis of public opinion data and various forms of congressional data, I knew that the late 1980s and early 1990s were a pivotal time in Republican immigration politics. A major effort at comprehensive immigration reform in 1986 had sparked backlash, and by 1996, immigration had reemerged as a presidential campaign issue. Bob Dole was one of the leading Republican politicians in this period. I not only wanted to learn more about him, but I wanted to know what he saw from his vantage point; how he handled the increasing pressures from within his coalition as the Republican leader in the U.S. Senate; and how he balanced competing demands to craft a strategy as the 1996 Republican nominee for President.

 


President George H.W. Bush speaks with Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole (right) and Senator George Mitchell (left) at a White House event. Dole Photograph Collection, 1900-2011, Box 17, Folder 22, Robert and Elizabeth Dole Archives and Special Collections, Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas.

 

After learning I was selected for the 2024 Robert and Elizabeth Dole Archives and Special Collections Research Fellowship – my first-ever external award as a graduate student – I set about planning my trip. Lawrence, Kansas, and the Dole Institute would be my first stop in a two-month road trip that would take me to archival sites from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Southern California.

I arrived via Amtrak from Chicago late on Monday, January 20, which happened to be Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Inauguration Day, and what felt like the coldest day of the year. Right away, I got a taste of how friendly and historically connected people in Lawrence would be. The stationmaster welcomed me into the station after I had gotten locked out, and when I told him why I was visiting, he told me that he had gone on historical tours run by Richard Norton Smith, the founding director of the Dole Institute.

I braved the cold the following morning and arrived for my first day of two weeks at the Dole Institute. With the assistance of the outstanding archives team, who were incredibly helpful the entire time that I was in residence, I dug into the campaign materials and the leadership files right away. I found key evidence, such as internal memos from 1996 identifying immigration as one of Bill Clinton’s top vulnerabilities and debate preparation materials maintaining that “we must distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants.”[1]

I continued to focus on the campaign materials and the leadership files the remainder of my time at the Dole Institute, while also branching out into the papers from Bob Dole’s time as chairman of the Republican National Committee in the early 1970s and the 1976 Republican vice-presidential nominee.

 


Senior Archivist and Head of Collections Sarah Gard (right) asks McGovern a question related to his research at “Coffee with a Researcher” on January 29, 2025. The special event gives donors, students, and members of the KU community insight into the research conducted at the Dole Archives. Photo by Jackson DeAndrea.

 

While I was in residence, I was lucky to experience the Dole Institute’s stellar public programming that it puts on year-round. The highlight was hearing former Kansas governors Mike Hayden, a Republican, and Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, speak about the arc of Kansas politics, in tribute to a newly published book about Kansas state politics, Reform and Reaction. Their conversations showed the connections between Kansas state politics and national immigration politics. When Bob Dole vacated his Senate seat to run for president in 1996, the former governors explained that a rift opened in the Republican Party during the special election primary to replace Dole – and that it has only gotten larger ever since.

My second week, I prepared to present my research to staff, students, and Friends of the Dole Institute. I had never presented my work outside of Northwestern University before, so I was excited to share some of my preliminary thoughts, especially with a group of people who knew so much about Bob Dole and Republican Party politics at the time. I was heartened that so many people came out and very appreciative of the thoughtful questions that each person asked.

I also got to attend a Kansas men’s basketball game at Allen Fieldhouse. I’m a big college basketball fan, and coincidentally, growing up in the Philadelphia suburbs, my neighbor was a Kansas alum, so I’ve been following Jayhawk basketball for years. It was incredible to finally go in person and experience the sway of the home crowd in a tight game.

 


In the course of his research, McGovern found internal memos identifying immigration as one of President Bill Clinton’s vulnerabilities during the 1996 Presidential Election. Photo by Jackson DeAndrea.

 

As my time in Lawrence wound down, I had one more memorable experience. I drove to the Kansas City area to interview one of Dole’s former staffers. As a mixed-methods political scientist, I am complementing my archival research with interviews and analysis of quantitative data like public opinion polling. Until then, all my interviews had taken place on Zoom or over the phone, so I jumped at the opportunity to conduct a key interview in person, as I believe you can learn so much more from talking to someone face-to-face. Thank you to the former Dole staffer for welcoming me into his home and sharing his insights!

Hospitality was characteristic of everyone that I met in Kansas. In particular, I want to thank Sarah Gard, Alex Adelmund, and everyone on the Dole Archives team who supported me while researching at the Institute. I also want to thank Caitlin Klepper and Shelby Schellenger at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas, where I viewed items from the Laird M. Wilcox Collection of Contemporary Political Movements during my last two days in the area. I look forward to coming back to Lawrence to dig deeper into collections at both the Dole Institute and Spencer Research Library soon enough!

 


 

[1] Robert J. Dole Presidential Campaign Papers, 1988-1996, Box 110, Folder 7, Robert and Elizabeth Dole Archive and Special Collections, Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas; Robert J. Dole Presidential Campaign Papers, 1988-1996, Box 119, Folder 11, Robert and Elizabeth Dole Archive and Special Collections, Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas.

 


 

Jack McGovern is a graduate student at Northwestern University. He is currently conducting research for his dissertation, “Issue Position Change and the Republican Party: Immigration Policy, 1965-2024,” at political archives around the country. He is the recipient of the 2024 Robert and Elizabeth Dole Archives and Special Collections Research Fellowship, the 2024 Harry Middleton Fellowship in Presidential Studies, and the 2024 Abba P. Schwartz Research Fellowship.

About the Dole Institute
Inspired by the leadership legacies of Senators Bob and Elizabeth Dole, and the enduring civic contributions of the Greatest Generation, the Dole Institute of Politics strives to promote a new era of leadership that uses politics to bring people together through opportunities that emphasize bipartisan cooperation, public service, and civic education and engagement.

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