Dan Coats

Daniel Ray Coats (born May 16, 1943) is an American politician, attorney, and diplomat.

Coats attended local public schools, and graduated from Jackson High School in 1961.

He then studied at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1965.

At Wheaton, he was an active student athlete on the soccer team.

Following his military service, Coats enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis (now Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law).

He served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1968.

He served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers from 1966 to 1968.

He also served as assistant vice president of a Fort Wayne life insurance company.

Serving as associate editor of the Indiana Law Review, Coats completed his Juris Doctor in 1972.

From 1976 to 1980, Coats worked for then-Congressman Dan Quayle, a Republican from Indiana's 4th congressional district, as Quayle's district representative.

When Quayle decided to challenge three-term Democratic incumbent Birch Bayh in the 1980 U.S. Senate election, Coats ran for and won Quayle's seat in the U.S. House.

He was reelected four times from this Fort Wayne-based district, usually without serious difficulty.

Coats represented Indiana's 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1989.

He was appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by Dan Quayle following Quayle's election as Vice President of the United States.

When Quayle resigned from the Senate after being elected Vice President of the United States in 1988, Coats, who had just been elected to a fifth term in the House, was appointed to Quayle's former seat.

A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999 and again from 2011 to 2017.

Coats won the 1990 special election to serve the remainder of Quayle's unexpired term, as well as the 1992 election for a full six-year term.

He subsequently won a special election in 1990 for the balance of Quayle's second term, and was elected to a full term in 1992.

He did not seek reelection in 1998 and was succeeded by Democrat Evan Bayh.

Coats declined to run for a second full term in 1998.

He served in the Senate until January 1999, at which time he was succeeded by Evan Bayh.

Coats worked as special counsel member in the firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand in 2000 and 2001.

He was the United States Ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005, and a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1989.

Coats served on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence while in the U.S. Senate.

Born in Jackson, Michigan, Coats graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois and the Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis.

After retiring from the Senate, Coats served as U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005 and then worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. He was reelected to the Senate by a large margin in 2010, succeeding Bayh, who announced his own retirement shortly after Coats declared his candidacy.

In 2001, Coats was reportedly one of George W. Bush's top choices to be secretary of defense, a job eventually given to Donald Rumsfeld who had previously held the post under President Gerald Ford.

From August 15, 2001, to February 28, 2005, Coats was United States ambassador to Germany.

As ambassador during the lead-up to the Iraq War, he unsuccessfully pressured the Government of Germany led by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder not to oppose the war, threatening worsened U.S. relations with Germany.

As Ambassador he also played a critical role in establishing robust relations with then opposition leader Angela Merkel, who approved the Iraq war, and in the construction of a new United States Embassy in the heart of Berlin next to the Brandenburg Gate.

Coats announced on February 3, 2010, he would run for his old Senate seat; and on February 16, 2010, Bayh announced his intention to retire.

Coats went on to win the seat.

In March 2015, he announced that he would not run for reelection in 2016.

He served on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Coats declined to run for reelection in 2016 and was succeeded by Todd Young.

From 2017 to 2019, he served as the Director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration.

He was nominated as Director of National Intelligence in January 2017, succeeding James R. Clapper.

His term in office commenced on March 16, 2017, and ended on August 15, 2019.

Coats was born in Jackson, Michigan, the son of Vera (Nora) Elisabeth (née Swanlund) and Edward Raymond Coats.

His father was of English and German descent, and his maternal grandparents emigrated from Sweden.