Daniel Ray Coats (born May 16, 1943) is an American politician, attorney, and diplomat from the state of Indiana. A Republican, Coats has served in the United States House of Representatives, in the United States Senate, as United States Ambassador to Germany, and as Director of National Intelligence.
Born in Jackson, Michigan, Coats graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois and the Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis. He served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1968. 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. 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 did not seek reelection in 1998 and was succeeded by Democrat Evan Bayh.
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. Coats declined to run for reelection in 2016 and was succeeded by Todd Young. 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. Coats attended local public schools, graduating from Jackson High School in 1961. He then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. Coats received a Juris Doctor from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 1971.
Coats 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. In the 1970s, Coats worked as a staffer for then-U.S. Rep. Dan Quayle, a Republican.
U.S. House of Representatives (1981–1988)
When Quayle ran for U.S. Senate in 1980, 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.
U.S. Senate (1988–1998; 2011–2016)
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. 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. 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.
On February 10, 2010, Coats confirmed that he would return to Indiana to run for the seat held by incumbent Evan Bayh in the 2010 United States Senate election. Bayh had made no previous announcements and was fully expected to run for another term, but after Coats announced his candidacy, Bayh announced his retirement on February 15, 2010. On May 4, 2010, Coats won the Republican primary over State Senator Marlin Stutzman and former U.S. Representative John Hostettler.. He served on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Coats defeated Democratic U.S. Representative Brad Ellsworth by a 15-point margin to return to the Senate. Coats became the senior senator from Indiana after Richard Lugar lost a challenge in the 2012 Republican primary election and subsequently was not re-elected to the Senate in 2012. Coats served the remainder of his term with Democrat Joe Donnelly.
Coats worked as special counsel member in the firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand in 2000 and 2001. 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.
US Ambassador to Germany (2001–2005)
From August 15, 2001, to February 28, 2005, Coats was George W. Bush's 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.
Again in private life (2005–2010)
Coats served as co-chairman of the Washington government relations office of King & Spalding.
In 2005, Coats drew attention when he was chosen by President George W. Bush to shepherd Harriet Miers's failed nomination to the Supreme Court through the Senate. Echoing Senator Roman Hruska's famous 1970 speech in defense of Harrold Carswell, Coats said to CNN regarding the nomination: "If [being a] great intellectual powerhouse is a qualification to be a member of the court and represent the American people and the wishes of the American people and to interpret the Constitution, then I think we have a court so skewed on the intellectual side that we may not be getting representation of America as a whole."
In 2007, Coats served as co-chairman of a team of lobbyists for Cooper Industries, a Texas corporation that moved its principal place of business to Bermuda, where it would not be liable for U.S. taxes. In that role, he worked to block Senate legislation that would have closed a tax loophole, worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Cooper Industries.