President Gerald Ford chose Dole as his running mate in the 1976 election after Vice President Nelson Rockefeller did not want to continue being Ford's vice president. Ford lost the election to Democrat Jimmy Carter in the general election. Dole ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980 but quickly dropped out of the race. He ran again for the nomination in the 1988 Republican primaries but lost to Vice President George H. W. Bush. Dole won the Republican nomination in 1996, however lost in the general election to President Bill Clinton. He resigned from the Senate during the 1996 campaign and did not run for public office again after the election.