Background and career
James Danforth Quayle (born February 4, 1947) is an American retired politician and Indiana 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 Senate from 1981 to 1989. A native of Indianapolis, Quayle spent most of his childhood in Paradise Valley, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, before moving back to Indiana to finish high school. Quayle met his future wife, Marilyn Tucker, while attending night classes at college. He married her in 1972 and had three children including Ben, 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 U.S. House of Representatives in 1976, where he beat incumbent representative, Edward Roush. Quayle would be re-elected in 1978 and serve a total of four years. In 1980 Quayle then ran against popular incumbent senator Birch Bayh. Quayle was expected to lose the race but ultimately defeated the incumbent and was elected to the U.S. Senate. Quayle would be re-elected in 1986, winning in a landslide victory. Quayle rose to national prominence when in 1988, incumbent vice president and Republican presidential nominee George H. W. Bush chose Quayle as his running mate. His vice presidential debate was notable for Lloyd 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. 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. After Quayle's Vice presidency ended in 1993 he published his memoir in 1994, Standing Firm, which became a bestseller. Quayle then published The American Family: Discovering the Values That Make Us Strong, which was co-authored with Diane Medved and published in 1996. He later published his third book, Worth Fighting For, in 1999. Quayle considered running for president in 1996 but declined 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. Quayle played crucial roles in his son Ben's U.S. House campaigns in 2010 and 2012 and advised Mike Pence to certify the results of the 2020 United States presidential election. Since leaving office, Quayle has remained active in politics, including making presidential endorsements of the Republican Party in 2000, 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024. Upon the death of Walter Mondale in April of 2021, Quayle became the earliest-serving surviving vice president.
Quayle was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on February 4, 1947, to Martha (née Pulliam) and James Cline Quayle. Quayle is the oldest of four children. He has two brothers, Christopher and Michael and a sister named Martha. Shortly after being born Quayle's family moved to Arizona. He has sometimes 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.
Quayle's family owned several wealthy businesses which include The Arizona Republic. His grandfather, Eugene C. Pulliam, who bought the two Gazettes as well as the Republic, ran all three newspapers until his death in 1975 at the age of 86. A strong period of growth came under Pulliam, who imprinted the newspaper with his conservative brand of politics and his drive for civic leadership. Pulliam's holding company, Central Newspapers, Inc., as led by Pulliam's widow and son, assumed operation of the Republic/Gazette family of papers upon the elder Pulliam's death. The Arizona Business Gazette is still published to this day. The other business was The Indianapolis Star. His family purchased the Star from Shaffer's estate on April 25, 1944, and adopted initiatives to increase the paper's circulation. In 1944, the Star had trailed the evening Indianapolis News but by 1948 had become Indiana's largest newspaper. In 1948, Pulliam purchased the News and combined the business, mechanical, advertising, and circulation operations of the two papers, with the News moving into the Star's building in 1950. The editorial and news operations remained separate. Eugene S. Pulliam took over as publisher upon the death of his father in 1975, a role he retained until his own death in 1999. Quayle's uncle, Eugene S. Pulliam was the publisher of the Indianapolis Star and the Indianapolis News from 1975 until his death. After spending much of his youth in Arizona, 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, was the captain of the university golf team and a member of the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon (Psi Phi chapter). 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. 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. At Indiana University, he met his future wife, Marilyn, who was taking night classes at the same law school at the time. 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.
Dan Quayle met Marilyn Quayle in 1972 when the two were attending night classes at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law and assigned to work on a project together involving the revision of Indiana's death penalty laws. The couple married within weeks in November 1972. Together they had three children: Tucker, Corrine, and Benjamin Quayle. As of the 1990s, the Quayles reside in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Their son Ben Quayle served one term in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 until 2013 representing Arizona's 3rd Congressional District until he lost re-nomination in the Republican primary to David Schweikert after redistricting.
Quayle was raised as a Presbyterian, although his connection to Robert B. Thieme Jr., a fundamentalist, became an issue of political attention during his career.
Quayle is an avid golfer. He wrote: "One of the reasons I love golf is because of the lessons it teaches about life. One of these lessons I learned during my college years from two great champions. ... I started playing golf when I was eight years old at Paradise Valley County Club in Phoenix. I competed in golf in high school and college where I was captain of my golf team. I learned early the lesson that Casper had learned. But, I have to keep relearning it. And apply it in other areas of my life." Quayle also wrote that "one of [his] heroes of American history was Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln made an interesting statement that parallels the lesson above that I learned from golf: 'You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.'"
