Mondale, Walter Frederick ("Fritz"),
1928–2021, Vice President of the United States (1977–81), b.
Ceylon, Minn., Univ. of Minn. (B.A., 1951; LL.B., 1956). A liberal Democrat,
Mondale was active in the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and served as state
attorney general (1960–64). When Hubert Humphrey became vice president in
1964, Mondale was appointed to replace him in the U.S. Senate; he served
until 1977, championing civil and women's rights, healthcare, and education.
In 1976 Jimmy Carter chose
Mondale to be his vice president; Mondale subsequently became one of the
first vice presidents to be significantly involved in an administration.
Carter and Mondale ran for reelection in 1980, but lost to the Republican
ticket of Ronald Reagan and George
H. W. Bush. In 1984
Mondale, as the Democratic presidential nominee, became the first
major-party candidate to choose a woman, Geraldine Ferraro, as a running mate. The
Mondale-Ferraro ticket lost to the incumbents. Mondale was U.S. ambassador
to Japan from 1993 to 1996, and served as a special envoy to Indonesia in
1998. After the death of Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone shortly before the
2002 vote, Mondale was nominated to run in his place but failed to win the
election.
See his autobiography (2010).
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