Remembering Walter Mondale | MPRNews

President Joe Biden visited Minneapolis Sunday afternoon to pay tribute to former Vice President Walter Mondale.

Mondale died last year at age 93 following a career in which he also served as Minnesota attorney general, US Senator, and ambassador.

He was a senator from Minnesota when Jimmy Carter chose him as his running mate in 1976.

In 1984 he was the Democratic candidate for president, but lost in a landslide as Ronald Reagan won a second term.

The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the memorial service, which is being held at the University of Minnesota.

Walter Mondale

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When Mondale died last April Biden issued a proclamation that read in part, “Mondale defined the modern vice presidency, elevating the position into a true partnership with the President. As Vice President, he helped lay the groundwork for the 1978 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, the Panama Canal Treaty, and nuclear arms negotiations with the Soviet Union.”

The proclamation also noted that Mondale made history when he became the first presidential nominee of either party to select a woman, Geraldine Ferraro, as his running mate.

Along with Biden, a host of DFL politicians spoke at the service, including Gov. Tim Walz, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Sen. Tina Smith.

Klobuchar has often cited Mondale as a mentor. She has said that interning in her office de ella as a college student convinced her that she could someday run for office.

Mondale’s own mentor was Minnesota Sen. Hubert Humphrey, who also served as vice president and was the Democratic nominee in 1968.

Smith managed Mondale’s campaign for Senate in 2002, when Mondale was unsuccessful in holding the seat after Sen. Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash days before the election.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham spoke at the memorial as well.