Walter Mondale

Walter Frederick Mondale was an American lawyer and Democratic politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States under President Jimmy Carter. Before becoming vice president, he served as Minnesota's attorney general and represented Minnesota in the United States Senate. Mondale helped establish a more active conception of the vice presidency, working closely with Carter as a regular presidential adviser and participant in executive decision-making.

Mondale was born in Ceylon, Minnesota, to Theodore Sigvaard Mondale, a Methodist minister, and Claribel Hope Mondale, a music teacher. He grew up in southern Minnesota and attended Macalester College, graduating in 1951. He served in the United States Army during the Korean War and afterward attended the University of Minnesota Law School, receiving his law degree in 1956. While still young, he became involved in Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor politics and developed a close political relationship with Hubert Humphrey.

Mondale began his public career when Minnesota's governor appointed him special assistant to the state attorney general in 1958. When the attorney general resigned the following year, Mondale was appointed to complete the term and then won election as attorney general in 1960. As attorney general, he participated in the landmark Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright, which established the constitutional right of indigent defendants to appointed counsel in felony cases. In 1964, when Hubert Humphrey resigned his Senate seat to become vice president, Mondale was appointed to fill the vacancy. He was subsequently elected to the Senate in his own right and served until 1976.

Mondale became Jimmy Carter's running mate in the 1976 presidential election and took office as vice president on January 20, 1977. His relationship with Carter significantly expanded the vice president's participation in presidential decision-making. Carter gave Mondale an office in the West Wing, access to presidential information, and a regular role in meetings concerning domestic and foreign policy. Mondale also established a tradition of weekly private lunches with the president that later vice presidents continued. The Senate Historical Office describes the Carter-Mondale partnership as a transformation of the vice presidency.

After Carter lost reelection in 1980, Mondale returned to Minnesota and resumed practicing law. In 1984 he became the Democratic nominee for president, selecting Representative Geraldine Ferraro of New York as his running mate; Ferraro became the first woman nominated for vice president by a major American political party. Mondale later returned to public service as United States ambassador to Japan from 1993 to 1996. He also made a brief return to electoral politics in 2002 when Minnesota Democrats selected him to replace the late Senator Paul Wellstone on the ballot, although he lost the general election.

Mondale spent his later years practicing law, speaking, and participating in public affairs. He died in Minneapolis on April 19, 2021, at the age of ninety-three. His legacy is particularly associated with the expansion of the vice president's executive role and his long career in Minnesota and national Democratic politics.