View source for Don Nickles

{{Short description|American politician (born 1948)}}
{{for|persons of a similar name|Donald Nichols (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Don Nickles
| image               = Senator Nickles portrait (1).jpg
| jr/sr               = United States Senator
| state               = [[Oklahoma]]
| term_start          = January 3, 1981
| term_end            = January 3, 2005
| predecessor         = [[Henry Bellmon]]
| successor           = [[Tom Coburn]]
{{Collapsed infobox section begin|Senate positions|titlestyle=border: 1px dashed lightgrey;}}
{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes
| office1             = Chair of the [[United States Senate Committee on the Budget|Senate Budget Committee]]
| term_start1         = January 3, 2003
| term_end1           = January 3, 2005
| predecessor1        = [[Kent Conrad]]
| successor1          = [[Judd Gregg]]
| office2             = [[Party leaders of the United States Senate|Senate Minority Whip]]
| leader2             = [[Trent Lott]]
| term_start2         = June 6, 2001
| term_end2           = January 3, 2003
| predecessor2        = [[Harry Reid]]
| successor2          = [[Harry Reid]]
| leader3             = Trent Lott
| term_start3         = January 3, 2001
| term_end3           = January 20, 2001
| predecessor3        = Harry Reid
| successor3          = [[Harry Reid]]
| office4             = [[Party leaders of the United States Senate|Senate Majority Whip]]
| leader4             = Trent Lott
| term_start4         = January 20, 2001
| term_end4           = June 6, 2001
| predecessor4        = Harry Reid
| successor4          = Harry Reid
| leader5             = Trent Lott
| term_start5         = June 12, 1996
| term_end5           = January 3, 2001
| predecessor5        = Trent Lott
| successor5          = Harry Reid
}}
{{Collapsed infobox section end}}
| state_senate6       = Oklahoma
| district6           = 20th
| term_start6         = January 2, 1979
| term_end6           = January 3, 1981
| predecessor6        = Roy Grantham
| successor6          = William O'Connor
| birth_name          = Donald Lee Nickles
| birth_date          = {{birth date and age|1948|12|6}}
| birth_place         = [[Ponca City, Oklahoma|Ponca City]], [[Oklahoma]], U.S.
| death_date          = 
| death_place         = 
| party               = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| spouse              = Linda Lou Morrison
| children            = 4
| education           = [[Oklahoma State University, Stillwater]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])
| module              = {{Listen |pos=center |embed=yes |filename=Senate Majority Whip Don Nickles Honors Deceased Sen. John Chafee.ogg |title=Nickles's voice |type=speech |description=Nickles honoring deceased Sen. [[John Chafee]].<br>Recorded October 25, 1999}}
}}
'''Donald Lee Nickles''' (born December 6, 1948) is an American politician and lobbyist who was a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[United States Senate|United States Senator]] from [[Oklahoma]] from 1981 to 2005. He was considered both a [[Fiscal conservatism|fiscal]] and [[Social conservatism|social conservative]]. After retiring from the Senate as the longest-serving senator from [[Oklahoma]] up until that point, he founded the Nickles Group, a lobbying firm.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://newsok.com/nickles-plans-to-launch-lobbying-venture-group/article/2876952|title=Nickles plans to launch lobbying, venture group |work=NewsOK.com |access-date=December 20, 2014}}</ref>

==Early life==
Nickles was born and raised in [[Ponca City, Oklahoma|Ponca City]], Oklahoma, the son of Coeweene (Bryan) and Robert C. Nickles.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=NI005|title = Nickles, Donald Lee &#124; the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VwvScLjCam4C&q=Coeweene+Robert+Nichols|title = Who's who in the South and Southwest|date = October 1984| publisher=Marquis Who's Who |isbn = 9780837908199}}</ref> He attended Ponca City public schools graduating from [[Ponca City High School]] in 1967. To help pay for their education at [[Oklahoma State University–Stillwater|Oklahoma State University]], he and his wife, the former Linda Lou Morrison, operated Don Nickles Professional Cleaning Service in [[Stillwater, Oklahoma|Stillwater]]. He was a member of [[Beta Theta Pi]] fraternity at [[Oklahoma State University]], and earned a [[Bachelor of Arts]] in [[business administration]] in 1971.

After college, he went to work for Nickles Machine Corporation in Ponca City, a business started in 1918 by his grandfather, Clair Nickles. He became the company's vice president and general manager. He also served in the [[Kansas Army National Guard]] and the [[Oklahoma Army National Guard]] from 1970 until 1976.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/N/NI005.html |title=Nickles, Donald Lee|access-date=July 3, 2008|last=Everett|first=Dianna|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture |publisher=[[Oklahoma Historical Society]]}}</ref><ref name=Nickles2004>{{cite web |url=http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/67thnationalconfdoc7.pdf |title=(speech at) 2004 Annual Dinner Awards|access-date=July 3, 2008 |last=Nickles|first=Don|date=November 18, 2004|work=Tax Foundation|quote=But we were self-employed and we had a little janitor service. Somebody found this in the phonebook and they circled it and it said Don Nickles Professional Cleaning Service. But we had that when we were going to school and we did quarterly estimated taxes and we were paying 40-some percent with this little janitor service. It was just my wife and I. She quit and it was a real small business. And the government was taking so much. Why should we keep growing that business if you're working half the time for government?}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC?vrsn=149&OP=starts&locID=chan86036&srchtp=name&ca=2&c=1&AI=U13026317&NA=Nickles&ste=12&tbst=prp&tab=1&docNum=K1650002027&bConts=43|title=Don Nickles|access-date=July 3, 2008|date=April 27, 2004|format=Fee|work=Biography Resource Center Online|publisher=Gale Group}}
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
Document Number: K1650002027</ref><ref name=OSUfnd2004>{{cite web|url=http://www.osugiving.com/forms/AR_03-04.pdf|title=OSU Achieving Greatness: Annual Report 2003-2004|access-date=July 3, 2008|year=2004|work=OSU Foundation|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080910065800/http://www.osugiving.com/forms/AR_03-04.pdf|archive-date=September 10, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.betathetapi.org/dmdocuments/beta-quick-facts.pdf|title=Beta Theta Pi Quick Facts|access-date=July 3, 2008|work=Beta Theta Pi fraternity |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226013641/http://www.betathetapi.org/dmdocuments/beta-quick-facts.pdf |archive-date=February 26, 2009 |quote=Senator Donald L. Nickles, Oklahoma State '71|url-status=dead}}</ref> A formative experience was the distress his family suffered following the death of his father, Robert,  in 1961, when Nickles was twelve years old. The family had to sell off part of the family business to raise cash to pay the required [[estate tax]].<ref name=OSUfnd2004/>
 
In 1978, aged 29, his election to the Oklahoma State Senate was the beginning of his career in public office.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47741429/helm-race-outcome-pends |title=Helm Race Outcome Pends |first=Ed |last=Kelley |work=[[The Oklahoman]] |page=15 |date=1978-11-09 |access-date=2020-03-31 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47741702/new-senator |title=New Senator |work=[[The Oklahoman]] |page=93 |date=1981-01-20 |access-date=2020-03-31 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Two years later, at the age of 31, he became and remains the youngest Republican ever elected to the U.S. Senate.<ref name=NatBus1989>{{cite news|first=Albert G.|last=Holzinger|author2=Alison A. Knocke|title=Business people in Congress |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1154/is_n3_v77/ai_7358459|work=Nation's Business|date=March 1989|access-date=July 4, 2008 |quote=The impact of inheritance taxes on a family business played the decisive role in Don Nickles' decision to run for the Senate in 1980. In 1918, Nickles' grandfather founded Nickles Machine Corp. in Oklahoma. The business remained family-owned until 1961, when Nickles' father died and his mother had to sell part of the firm to pay inheritance taxes. This perceived inequity reinforced Nickles' already unfavorable opinion of the tax code, he says.}}</ref><ref name=Barone1998>{{cite book|last=Barone|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Barone (pundit)|author2=Grant Ujifusa|title=[[The Almanac of American Politics]]|year=1998|work=[[National Journal]]|location=[[Washington, D.C.]]|isbn=0-89234-080-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/almanacofamerica00mich_4/page/1154 1154–58]}}</ref><ref name=Kyl2004>{{cite web |url=http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/67thnationalconfdoc7.pdf|title=(speech at) 2004 Annual Dinner Awards|access-date=July 3, 2008 |last=Kyl|first=John|author-link=John Kyl|date=November 18, 2004|work=Tax Foundation|quote=Don's family had to sell off part of the Nickles Machine to pay the death tax. And because of his efforts countless other families have avoided similar heart-wrenching decisions.}}</ref>

==U.S. Senate==

===Tenure===
[[File:President Ronald Reagan walking and talking with republican senator Donald Nickles of Oklahoma.jpg|thumb|right|Nickles with [[President of the United States|President]] [[Ronald Reagan]] in 1986]]
He sponsored legislation to cut taxes, reduce government spending, promote national defense, and reduce what he believed to be official hostility to religion. He sponsored the <!--so-called (yes, like other legislation it has a somewhat silly name)--> [[Defense of Marriage Act]] which allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages conducted in other states.

As Republican Whip, Nickles called for the resignation of fellow Republican [[Trent Lott]] as majority leader after Lott made remarks praising [[Strom Thurmond]] that seemed insensitive to the issue of racial segregation.<ref>{{cite news|title=Republican leader's deputy calls on him to resign|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/dec/16/usa.davidteather|access-date=July 14, 2023|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=December 16, 2002}}</ref> The National Federation of Independent Business praised Nickles for including in the Senate's 2005 budget a provision that would accelerate by one year a complete repeal of the federal estate tax<ref>{{cite news|title=Nickles' death tax fight hailed|url=http://newsok.com/nickles-death-tax-fight-hailed/article/1892737|access-date=October 12, 2014|publisher=The Oklahoman|date=March 6, 2004}}</ref>
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Nickles was one of many Republican senators who in 1981 called the White House to express his discontent over the nomination of [[Sandra Day O'Connor]] of [[Arizona]] to the [[United States Supreme Court]]. Nickles said that he and other socially conservative Republican senators would not support O'Connor because of her "presumed unwillingness" to overturn the [[abortion]] decision ''[[Roe v. Wade]]''.<ref>Greenburg, Jan Crawford. Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court.2007. Penguin Books, pg. 222.</ref>

During a 1986 campaign rally at the [[University of Oklahoma]] in [[Norman, Oklahoma|Norman]], [[Ronald Reagan|President Reagan]] accidentally called him [[Don Rickles]], the American comedian. The president was later told about his mistake and found it very amusing.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jim Kuhn|year=2004|title=Ronald Reagan in Private|publisher=Penguin Group|location=New York|id=1-59523-008-4|page=146}}</ref>

Nickles was one of three Senators to vote against the confirmation of [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]] and one of nine to vote against the confirmation of [[Stephen Breyer]]  to the Supreme Court.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=103&session=1&vote=00232|title = U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 103rd Congress - 1st Session}}</ref>

===Leadership===
Nickles quickly rose in the Senate Republican leadership, serving as chairman of the [[National Republican Senatorial Committee]] in the [[101st Congress]]; [[Republican Policy Committee Chairman of the United States Senate|Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee]] in the [[102nd Congress|102nd]], [[103rd Congress|103rd]], and [[104th Congress|104th]] [[Congress of the United States|Congresses]]; and Assistant [[United States Senate Majority Leader|Republican Leader]] from 1996 to 2003. After being term-limited out of the Assistant Leader position, Nickles served in the 108th Congress as chairman of the [[Senate Budget Committee]]. Nickles was also on [[Bob Dole]]'s short list of [[Vice President of the United States|vice presidential]] choices, before Dole finally decided on former [[United States Representative|Congressman]] [[Jack Kemp]] of [[New York (state)|New York]].

In December 2002, Nickles became embroiled in the controversy surrounding Republican Leader [[Trent Lott]]. At Senator [[Strom Thurmond]]'s 100th birthday party, Lott had made comments that some took to be racially insensitive. As the controversy grew, Nickles went on national television and became the first senator in the Republican leadership to say that Lott should step down. Nickles believed that the controversy over Lott's remarks would distract from the Republican legislative agenda, and as he served as Lott's deputy in the Senate this statement was seen as the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back." Despite many apologies for his remarks, Lott stepped down shortly thereafter. Declining to run for the position of [[Senate Majority Leader]] himself, Lott was succeeded by [[Bill Frist]] of [[Tennessee]].

Nickles was re-elected in 1986, 1992 and 1998 and was the senior senator from Oklahoma from 1994 to 2005.

==Post-Senate career==
On October 7, 2003, he announced that he would not run in the 2004 election.<ref name=NYT2004>{{cite news |first=Sheryl Gay|last=Stolberg|title= Oklahoma Republican Is Retiring From Senate|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/08/us/oklahoma-republican-is-retiring-from-senate.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=October 8, 2003|access-date=July 4, 2008}}</ref> Republican [[Tom Coburn]] was elected to succeed Nickles.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Morrison |first1=Sara |title=Tom Coburn Is Retiring From the Senate |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/tom-coburn-retiring-senate/357115/ |website=theatlantic.com |date=January 17, 2014 |access-date=19 February 2020}}</ref>

Nickles went on to found the Nickles Group, a government consulting group in Washington, D.C. He also serves on the boards of directors of a number of public companies, such as [[Oklahoma City]]-based [[Chesapeake Energy]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/officerProfile?symbol=FIGI.O&officerId=772815|title=Fortress International Group Inc (FIGI.O) Officers|access-date=July 3, 2008 |work=[[Reuters]]|quote=Donald L. Nickles has been a member of board of directors since February 2005 and currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Chesapeake Energy Corporation and [[Valero Energy Corporation]]. In 2005, after his retirement from the United States Senate, Nickles founded and is currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Nickles Group, LLC, a consulting and business venture firm headquartered in Washington, D.C.}}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

Nickles was one of the politicians featured in the film ''[[Traffic (2000 movie)|Traffic]]'', giving his opinion on the war on drugs.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Richardson |first1=Lisa |title=Left, Right--the Cameos Come From All Sides in 'Traffic' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jan-07-cl-9257-story.html |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=January 7, 2001 |access-date=19 February 2020}}</ref>

==Family==
Nickles and his wife, Linda, have four children.<ref>{{cite web |title=NICKLES, DONALD LEE (1948– ). |url=https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=NI005 |website=okhistory.org |publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society |access-date=19 February 2020}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[HIV Prevention Act of 1997]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Other sources==
* [http://www.oksenate.gov/news/press_releases/press_releases_1999/PR990524.html "Nickles, McCaleb Try to Sabotage Oklahoma Amtrak Service, Opt for Yugo Rather Than Cadillac."] Oklahoma State Senate. Communications Division, State Capitol. May 24, 1999.
* ''Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774–1996.'' Alexandria, Va.: CQ Staff Directories, 1997.
* "Donald Nickles." Research Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Okla.
* ''Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–1989.'' Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989.
* ''Congressional Directory, 106th Congress, 1999–2000.'' Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1999.
* ''Congressional Quarterly's Politics in America 2000, The 106th Congress.'' Philip D. Duncan and Brian Nutting, eds. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1999.
* ''Who's Who in American Politics, 1997–1998.'' Marquis Who's Who, 1997.

==External links==
*{{CongBio|N000102}}
*{{C-SPAN|1654}}
*{{IMDb name|0630054}}
*[https://nicklesgroup.com/ The Nickles Group]

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[[Category:1948 births]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Oklahoma Legislature]]
[[Category:20th-century United States senators]]
[[Category:21st-century United States senators]]
[[Category:Kansas National Guard personnel]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Members of Congress who became lobbyists]]
[[Category:Oklahoma National Guard personnel]]
[[Category:Oklahoma State University alumni]]
[[Category:People from Ponca City, Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Ponca City High School alumni]]
[[Category:Republican Party Oklahoma state senators]]
[[Category:Republican Party United States senators from Oklahoma]]
[[Category:United States Army soldiers]]