Is Lewis Eisenhower any relation to Dwight Eisenhower?
Yes, described as a "distant nephew".... here is the bio from the first thread back in 2010. (written by Jay Cruger)
Lewis David Eisenhower
Lewis David Eisenhower (Born March 1, 1944)was born in Columbus,Ohio to Marie and Daniel David Eisenhower. He is a distant nephew of former President Dwight David Eisenhower. Eisenhower spent most of his youth in Ohio, and he graduated from Belmont High in Dayton, Ohio, in 1960. He then matriculated into Ohio State University, where he received his B.A. in Political Science in 1964.
Lewis Eisenhower's public service began in July 1970 when he became translator and speechwriter for the Spanish delegation in New York City at the U.N. . Later that year, he became an assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to Greece.
In 1972, he was elected to the Ohio State Senate, and took various trips to different countries in the eastern world. In 1974, he decided to run for Mayor of Columbus, losing to James Harper, a Democrat from his district. In 1975, he was appointed to serve out the term of his brother Roger, who had died of complications from pnuemonia. He won the special election later that year for the House election unopposed. He served on the House Foreign Relations Committee, and was sent on various missions to the leaders of Japan, China and Russia. In 1980, he re won his district in an overwhelming victory, of 72% of the vote.
In 1982, he was tapped to replace Alexander Haig as Secretary of State, under President Reagan, he effectively lost that job in 1987, with the election of Democrat D. Wire Newman. He then returned to see that, in his words, his home district was in "government disarray", and in 1988, ran for his House Seat once again, won, in the hopes of becoming Speaker of the House some day.
1n 1990 Eisenhower decided to perform on a much higher stage in announcing his candidacy for Presidency of the United States. Eisenhower, was victorious in the lead-off Iowa Caucus, but gradually lost momentum, to popular conservative Owen Lassiter. He was vetted to be Vice President at the 1990 Republican National Convention, amidst rumors that Lassiter would chose Joseph Furman as his running mate. The Lassiter-Eisenhower ticket, won a landslide victory over D. Wire Newman and Roland Pierce.
Eisenhower was considered effective bu slightly too middle-roads for the Lassiter administration. He made matters difficult by referring to the Iraqi Leader Saddam Hussein as Adolf Hitler. He made a terrible blunder, in 1992 when he spilled wine on the shirt of the Chinese Premier, and later had to apologize for it publicly. Most of the Republican Leadership considered choosing another running mate for Lassiter in 1994. However, Eisenhower proved himself by addressing newly reformed Russia, with it power struggle, and its impending Chechnya conflict. Eisenhower was the first Vice President to visit Russia in the post-Soviet era, earning him the fron page. In 1994 Eisenhower was embarassed at the public debate, with Barry Goodwin, by calling himself, "a type of Jack Kennedy figure", to which Barry Goodwin shot back "Mr. Vice President, you are no Jack Kennedy". Still Lassiter and Eisenhower were reelected.
In 1998, Eisenhower faced a contest for President of the United States, once again. Georgia Governor Caleb Burgess, contested the nomination of Eisenhower, and Burgess surprisingly beat him in the Iowa Caucus, and other Caucuses but dropped out for poor showing on Super Tuesday. After clinching the nomination, Eisenhower chose Alabama Senator Robert Bennett, to be his running mate. From there Eisenhower assumed he would be running against John Hoynes, a seemingly unreal candidiate, and the image he wanted to run an easy campaign against. His numbers were just as good when New Hampshire Governor Josiah Bartlet won the Democratic Nomination. Until the third and final debate with Bartlet, he had a decent lead in the polls. Despite winning some big states on election night Jed Bartlet defeated him 303-235 Electoral Votes, at a 48%- 45% margin, 6% went to Independent Jim Buckner.
After this defeat, he was thought of as a possible for the 2002 Election, he decided against it and instead endorsed Jim Simon for president, and then endorsed Robert Ritchie for President, when Simon dropped out.
Eisenhower refused to comment on President Bartlet's disclosure of Multiple Sclerosis, neither in public nor in his book,
The American Way. He did feel however, that "Bartlet hurt alot of people that way". Eisenhower retired, in 2008 and moved to New York to retire upstate, he did however, in 2009 endorse Jesse Crase for Mayor of New York City.
He lives with his wife Lana, and has four kids Jonathan, Lewis, Mark and Renay.
