JIMMY CARTER

Walter Mondale wrote a eulogy for Jimmy Carter. His son read it at the funeral

Tom Crann and Ngoc Bui / MPR News — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 00:40:37 GMT

ST. PAUL — Walter Mondale wrote a eulogy for Jimmy Carter 10 years ago. On Thursday, Jan. 9, his son read it at the state funeral service for Carter at the Washington National Cathedral.

Ted Mondale was a young adult when his father became Carter’s vice president. He said the two men had a deep relationship and friendship that lasted long after their time in office.

Carter “came out to Minnesota for my dad’s 90th birthday,” Mondale told MPR News host Tom Crann. “When a 93-year-old from south Georgia comes to Minnesota on Jan. 5 — that’s a friend.”

Ahead of the service, Ted Mondale said his role would be focused on delivering his father’s words and that he would not be sharing his personal reflections.

But he did share that he will remember Carter as a “very nice man.”

“That’s rare for somebody of that importance, under that amount of stress to actually care about human beings in the way that Carter did,” he said.

This interview has been edited lightly for clarity.

Tell me how you’re feeling as you prepare to read this eulogy.

Well, this is a tremendous honor for me personally, but it really reflects the end of a relationship between two great men: President Carter and my father.

It’s a sad time and I think it’s probably a good time to reflect on how they operated together and as a whole.

Tell me how this eulogy came about. I understand it was written about 10 years ago by your father, who passed away back in 2021. Was he asked by Jimmy Carter to do this? Was that the plan?

Yes, as I understand it, President Carter contracted brain cancer in 2015. And they asked [my father] to write a eulogy to give at his potential funeral, which they thought would be soon. Of course, it turned out to be 10 years later.

So, the original draft of this was drafted in 2015 and it was clearly updated by my dad over time. Frankly, we never talked about it. So, I received a call from the Carter Center folks saying, “Hey, by the way, we’d like you to come give this eulogy that your dad wrote that we have right here.”

Your dad knew Carter in a way that very few people did. As you read through this eulogy, what are you learning about your dad and Jimmy Carter’s relationship?

Well, I think — and the eulogy states this — is that the relationship was very deep. It was very personable. It was very good. And, you know, my dad saw what Hubert Humphrey, his mentor, went through with Lyndon Johnson, you know, making him ride a horse and not giving him any responsibilities and really humiliating him. And there was an understanding between the two that my father wouldn’t be interested in that kind of vice presidency. And apparently, Carter had thought through what a modern vice presidency would look like. They agreed, and they went on from there.

I would say also, and it’s in the eulogy, my dad reflects that, you know, in many ways, they grew up the same way. They were both from very small towns. My father was a preacher’s kid. Carter was from a family and was a person of deep, deep faith. And it was really that sort of rural background and a deep shared core value of religious faith that created a relationship, one of the most difficult there are that worked, that they understood each other, they could figure out how to work together. But it was really my father believes it was because of growing up in similar backgrounds and being from similar places in life.

What’s your favorite part of this eulogy?

Well, I think that two parts that I find most moving, other than the personal piece, is he talks about Carter being a visionary. You know, in the 1970s, nobody was talking about climate change, nobody was thinking about climate change. And here you had a president of the United States that really went staked his presidency on trying to do something about it, on energy conservation, on alternatives, on deregulating oil and gas production, and it actually led to a 10% reduction of overall, any energy usage in the United States from 1979 to 1983.

That is visionary, that is putting oneself and immediate political needs behind what would help the country the most over the long run. I think that’s moving. He also did an incredible amount for women’s rights. He, you know, extended the ability to get the era passed. He appointed women to be the secretaries of commerce, HUD, HEW and HHS, he appointed more women to the federal judiciary than five times the amount of all the other previous presidents combined, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg ... and it’s compelling and really tells a story about these values that drove Carter and that administration at that time.

Will you be sharing any of your own memories, or is it strictly your father’s?

I’m a hologram. I've not been asked to reflect on my life or my feelings or anything. I am trying to give the words of my father to his family and the whole cathedral and much of the world.

Then I want to give you a chance to share your reflections. What memories do you have of Jimmy Carter when you first met him?

I would say that, you know, for Carter himself, he always took time out to come over and say hi and really inquire us of what we were doing, what we were thinking, what’s going on in your life. You love to talk baseball, big Braves fan. And you know, that’s rare for somebody of that importance, under that amount of stress, to actually care about human beings in a way that Carter did. He was a very, very nice man.

You know, he came out to Minnesota for my dad’s 90th birthday, which when a 93-year-old from south Georgia comes to Minnesota on Jan. 5, that’s a friend. But he went on, they were joking around. It was really great footage, but he was joking around about my mom saying, “Oh my god, she would call all the time, and we had to get this funding, and this had to go through.” He said, “I think I spent more time with Joan Mondale on public art funding than I did on foreign policy.”

Transcript of Ted Mondale’s eulogy for Jimmy CarterMy father wrote this in 2015 and clearly he edited it a couple times since then. But here we go.

Today, we join in sadness to honor our dear friend, President Carter, for his extraordinary years of principled and decent leadership and his courageous commitment to civil rights and human rights. I remember the emergence of Jimmy Carter on the national stage, in particular his 1971 inaugural address. For the first time, a Georgia governor called for a commitment to the traditions of Martin Luther King Jr., and for the decency that his leadership stood for over his lifetime.

I was surprised when then-candidate Carter asked me to join him as his running mate in 1976. He amazed me then, as he has every year since. He, of course, was brilliant. He also had a great sense of humor. And while we had only four years in the White House, he achieved so much in that time. It stood as a marker for Americans dedicated to justice and decency. Carter was a man of his word.

I remember when he talked about the concept of the vice presidency. I told him I'd like to do it and had only two requests. I wanted to make a real contribution and I didn't want to be embarrassed, as many of my predecessors have. He agreed, welcomed my full participation and directed his staff to treat me as they would him. He was very careful to protect me from the frustration and too often humiliation had cursed the lives of many vice presidents.

I want to thank the president for the good choices he made with his key personnel. We don't have time to mention many of them, but Stu Eizenstat comes as close as possible to rivaling President Carter's formidable work ethic. Hamilton Jordan and Jody Powell were blessings every day, to me, to the president and to the nation.

One of the things that dawned on me during the course of our time together is how well we worked together and how we understood each other. I think one of the realities was that Carter was a devout Christian who grew up in a small town and was active in his faith for almost every moment of his life. I was also a small-town kid who grew up in a Methodist Church where my dad was a preacher, and our faith was core to me as Carter's faith was core to him. That common commitment to our faith created a bond between us that allowed us to understand each other and find ways to work together.

He allowed me to take a leadership role on issues that never would have happened before. For instance, he directed and trusted me to take a central role in trying to bring decency to the Vietnamese and Southeast Asian boat people who were fleeing their country. With President Carter's orders, the boat people were picked up by our great Navy from their flimsy boats, which were capsizing, and taken to safety. Most became good American citizens working for a healthy and prosperous nation.

Joan loved her time as a second lady, and we have Jimmy and Rosalynn to thank for helping her champion the public arts and for just being so kind to her. These were good years for Joan and I. President Carter and I became very close friends. We often spent hours together throughout the day. We were working on real problems, not wasting time.

The personal relationship we established while in office continued throughout our life. Carter was farsighted. He put aside his short-term political interests to tackle challenges that demanded sacrifice to protect our kids and grandkids from future harm. Very few people in the 1970s had heard the term climate change, yet Carter put his presidency on the line to pass laws to conserve energy, deregulate new oil and gas prices and invest in clean renewable alternatives to fossil fuels. It wasn't a perfect program, but thanks to President Carter, U.S. energy consumption declined by 10 percent between 1979 and 1983. In many ways, he laid the foundation for future presidents to come to grips with climate change. Some thought he was crazy to fight so hard to pass these laws, but he was dead right and we know that now.

We also know that President Carter elevated human rights to the top of his agenda. Sometimes we forget how seriously he pursued, he pushed to advance the rights of women. He proposed and signed the law extending the period for states to approve the Equal Rights Amendment. He appointed women to head the departments of Commerce, Education, HUD and what is now HEW. Women on his White House staff played crucial roles in developing his highest-priority energy and environmental proposals, and he dramatically increased the ranks of female circuit and district court judges, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In all, he appointed five times as many women to the federal bench as all of the previous presidents had from the beginning of our country.

Two decades ago, President Carter said he believed income inequality was the biggest global issue. More recently, in a 2018 commencement address at Liberty University, he said, ‘I think now the largest global issue is the discrimination against women and girls in this world.’ He concluded that until stubborn attitudes that foster discrimination against women change, the world cannot advance, and poverty and income equality cannot be solved.

Towards the end of our time in the White House, the President and I were talking about how we might describe what we tried to accomplish in office, we came up with a sentence which remains an important summary of our work. We told the truth, we obeyed the law and we kept the peace. That we did, Mr. President. I will always be proud and grateful to have had the chance to work with you towards noble ends. It was then and will always be the most rewarding experience of my public career.

Thank you.

This story was originally published on MPRNews.org
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Hundreds pack into Washington cathedral for Jimmy Carter funeral

Bo Erickson, Jeff Mason and Katharine Jackson / Reuters — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 16:35:44 GMT

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of mourners including all five living current and former U.S. presidents packed into Washington's National Cathedral on Thursday to mourn, Jimmy Carter, the former U.S. president who struggled with a bad economy and a hostage crisis.

As the somber ceremony began and a bitterly cold wind blew, Carter's flag-draped coffin was carried up the stone steps of the cathedral by a military honor guard after its trip from the Capitol, where his body had lain in state for two days.

Fellow Democratic President Joe Biden will eulogize the 39th president who died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100. Republican President-elect Donald Trump was among the luminaries at the funeral, before Carter's body is returned to Georgia, where Carter was raised as a peanut farmer.

Entering the cathedral with his wife, Melania, Trump shook hands with his former vice president, Mike Pence, who he had clashed with after Pence refused to go along with his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

Trump, who will return to office on Jan. 20, sat next to former President Barack Obama, with whom he chatted as introductory music played. To Obama's right were Laura and George W. Bush and Hillary and Bill Clinton.

Biden and first lady Jill Biden walked hand in hand and took seats in the first row next to Vice President Harris and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Vice President-elect JD Vance and Biden's son Hunter were also among the mourners. Former vice presidents Al Gore and Pence sat side by side.

Tens of thousands of Americans over the past two days filed through the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol to pay their respects to Carter, who served from 1977 to 1981, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his humanitarian work.

Some said they admired the former Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher who played a key role in the negotiation of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty as a gentle man, rather than a partisan combatant.

"We've come so far from where Jimmy Carter was as a person and it's kinda sad," said Dorian DeHaan, 67, who traveled some 275 miles (440 km) from Sugar Loaf, New York, to pay her respects. "I hope that this will be a reminder to people of what we need to get back to -- that it's not about the power, it's about the people."

As she waited in the public viewing line outside the Capitol, DeHaan said her daughter married into the family of the president's younger sister, Ruth, presenting the opportunity to meet the former president in Plains, Georgia.

"But it's a sad moment," DeHaan said. "It's the end of an era and I think we kind of have lost this real belief in humanity, in our presidency."

Washington National Cathedral has hosted the state funerals of Carter's immediate predecessor, Gerald Ford, and successor, Ronald Reagan.

Carter attended both men's funerals and gave the eulogy for Ford, joking that they shared a love of a New Yorker magazine cartoon that depicted a little boy looking up at his father, saying, "Daddy, when I grow up, I want to be a former president."

Man from Plains

Following the state funeral, Carter's remains will be returned to his native Plains where he lived in his 44 post-White House years and made the base of operations for his diplomatic work and charitable efforts including Habitat for Humanity.

Carter lived longer than any other U.S. president and had been in hospice care for nearly two years before his death. His last public appearance was at wife Rosalynn's funeral in November 2023, where he used a wheelchair and appeared frail.

In August, his grandson Jason Carter said Carter was looking forward to casting a ballot for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election, which she lost to Trump.

Biden, during his long career in the U.S. Senate, was the first member of that chamber to endorse Carter for president.

Sarah Jolie, 59, had traveled from her home outside of Chicago to pay her respects. She carried a picture of the youth award she received in junior high from the Carter administration for “outstanding achievement in environmental protection services.”

"He just was a hero to me," Jolie said. "He espoused things for generations that nobody else was."

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U.S. Postal Service to halt Jan. 9 operations for Carter observance

Levi Jones — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 19:13:17 GMT

A national Day of Observance has been declared for Thursday, Jan. 9, to honor the death of former President Jimmy Carter.

Out of respect, on Thursday, various government services will not operate.

Included in the suspended operations is the United States Postal Services’ suspension of regular mail deliveries, retail services and administrative office activity. The Postal Service will accept and process volume dropped by commercial mailers at mailing processing facilities at this time. A limited package delivery service will be maintained on the day to ensure organizations do not experience impacts to operations that may negatively impact customers or business partners.

All Postal Service facilities and area district administrative offices are included in the national day of observance. Regular operations will resume Friday, Jan. 10.

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Minnesota to fly American flags at half-staff for former President Jimmy Carter

Staff reports — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 18:27:42 GMT

ST. PAUL — Minnesota will join the nation in mourning the death of former President Jimmy Carter by flying the American flag at half-staff.

Gov. Tim Walz ordered all flags at state buildings to be lowered to half-staff for 30 days. The move follows a federal proclamation signed by former President Dwight Eisenhower as a way to honor U.S. presidents who have died.

“President Carter defined what it means to be a servant leader,” Walz said in a statement. “He fought for our democracy, our climate, humanity, and civil rights around the world. We can find peace today knowing that he is reunited with the love of his life, Rosalynn.”

Carter served as the 39th president from 1977 to 1981. The Democrat defeated President Gerald Ford, a Republican, in the 1976 U.S. election then lost to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Known for brokering peace between Israel and Egypt, Carter also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for promoting human rights and resolving conflicts around the globe. He was 100 years old when he died Sunday, Dec. 29, at his home in Georgia.

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Former US President Jimmy Carter dies at 100

Will Dunham and Jasper Ward / Reuters — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 21:18:52 GMT

WASHINGTON — Jimmy Carter, the earnest Georgia peanut farmer who as U.S. president struggled with a bad economy and the Iran hostage crisis but brokered peace between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday, the Carter Center said. He was 100.

“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”

The Carter Center said there will be public observances in Atlanta and Washington. These events will be followed by a private interment in Plains, it said.

Final arrangements for the former president's state funeral are still pending, according to the center.

A Democrat, he served as president from January 1977 to January 1981 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 U.S. election. Carter was swept from office four years later in an electoral landslide as voters embraced Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, the former actor and California governor.

Carter lived longer after his term in office than any other U.S. president. Along the way, he earned a reputation as a better former president than he was a president -- a status he readily acknowledged.

His one-term presidency was marked by the highs of the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East. But it was dogged by an economy in recession, persistent unpopularity and the embarrassment of the Iran hostage crisis that consumed his final 444 days in office.

In recent years, Carter had experienced several health issues including melanoma that spread to his liver and brain. Carter decided to receive hospice care in February 2023 instead of undergoing additional medical intervention. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, died on Nov. 19, 2023, at age 96. He looked frail when he attended her memorial service and funeral in a wheelchair.

Carter left office profoundly unpopular but worked energetically for decades on humanitarian causes. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 in recognition of his "untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."

Carter had been a centrist as governor of Georgia with populist tendencies when he moved into the White House as the 39th U.S. president. He was a Washington outsider at a time when America was still reeling from the Watergate scandal that led Republican Richard Nixon to resign as president in 1974 and elevated Ford from vice president.

"I'm Jimmy Carter and I'm running for president. I will never lie to you," Carter promised with an ear-to-ear smile.

Asked to assess his presidency, Carter said in a 1991 documentary: "The biggest failure we had was a political failure. I never was able to convince the American people that I was a forceful and strong leader."

Despite his difficulties in office, Carter had few rivals for accomplishments as a former president. He gained global acclaim as a tireless human rights advocate, a voice for the disenfranchised and a leader in the fight against hunger and poverty, winning the respect that eluded him in the White House.

Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to promote human rights and resolve conflicts around the world, from Ethiopia and Eritrea to Bosnia and Haiti. His Carter Center in Atlanta sent international election-monitoring delegations to polls around the world.

A Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher since his teens, Carter brought a strong sense of morality to the presidency, speaking openly about his religious faith. He also sought to take some pomp out of an increasingly imperial presidency - walking, rather than riding in a limousine, in his 1977 inauguration parade.

The Middle East was the focus of Carter's foreign policy. The 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, based on the 1978 Camp David Accords, ended a state of war between the two neighbors.

Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for talks. Later, as the accords seemed to be unraveling, Carter saved the day by flying to Cairo and Jerusalem for personal shuttle diplomacy.

The treaty provided for Israeli withdrawal from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the establishment of diplomatic relations. Begin and Sadat each won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1978.

By the 1980 election, the overriding issues were double-digit inflation, interest rates that exceeded 20% and soaring gas prices, as well as the Iran hostage crisis that brought humiliation to America. These issues marred Carter's presidency and undermined his chances of winning a second term.

HOSTAGE CRISIS

On Nov. 4, 1979, revolutionaries devoted to Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seized the Americans present and demanded the return of the ousted shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was backed by the United States and was being treated in a U.S. hospital.

The American public initially rallied behind Carter. But his support faded in April 1980 when a commando raid failed to rescue the hostages, with eight U.S. soldiers killed in an aircraft accident in the Iranian desert.

Carter's final ignominy was that Iran held the 52 hostages until minutes after Reagan took his oath of office on Jan. 20, 1981, to replace Carter, then released the planes carrying them to freedom.

In another crisis, Carter protested the former Soviet Union's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. He also asked the U.S. Senate to defer consideration of a major nuclear arms accord with Moscow.

Unswayed, the Soviets remained in Afghanistan for a decade.

Carter won narrow Senate approval in 1978 of a treaty to transfer the Panama Canal to the control of Panama despite critics who argued the waterway was vital to American security. He also completed negotiations on full U.S. ties with China.

Carter created two new U.S. Cabinet departments -- education and energy. Amid high gas prices, he said America's "energy crisis" was "the moral equivalent of war" and urged the country to embrace conservation. "Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth," he told Americans in 1977.

In 1979, Carter delivered what became known as his "malaise" speech to the nation, although he never used that word.

"After listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can't fix what's wrong with America," he said in his televised address.

"The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America."

As president, the strait-laced Carter was embarrassed by the behavior of his hard-drinking younger brother, Billy Carter, who had boasted: "I got a red neck, white socks, and Blue Ribbon beer."

'THERE YOU GO AGAIN'

Jimmy Carter withstood a challenge from Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination but was politically diminished heading into his general election battle against a vigorous Republican adversary.

Reagan, the conservative who projected an image of strength, kept Carter off balance during their debates before the November 1980 election.

Reagan dismissively told Carter, "There you go again," when the Republican challenger felt the president had misrepresented Reagan's views during one debate.

Carter lost the 1980 election to Reagan, who won 44 of the 50 states and amassed an Electoral College landslide.

James Earl Carter Jr. was born on Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, one of four children of a farmer and shopkeeper. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, served in the nuclear submarine program and left to manage the family peanut farming business.

He married his wife, Rosalynn, in 1946, a union he called "the most important thing in my life." They had three sons and a daughter.

Carter became a millionaire, a Georgia state legislator and Georgia's governor from 1971 to 1975. He mounted an underdog bid for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, and out-hustled his rivals for the right to face Ford in the general election.

With Walter Mondale as his vice presidential running mate, Carter was given a boost by a major Ford gaffe during one of their debates. Ford said that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration," despite decades of just such domination.

Carter edged Ford in the election, even though Ford actually won more states -- 27 to Carter's 23.

Not all of Carter's post-presidential work was appreciated. Former President George W. Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, both Republicans, were said to have been displeased by Carter's freelance diplomacy in Iraq and elsewhere.

In 2004, Carter called the Iraq war launched in 2003 by the younger Bush one of the most "gross and damaging mistakes our nation ever made." He called George W. Bush's administration "the worst in history" and said Vice President Dick Cheney was "a disaster for our country."

In 2019, Carter questioned Republican Donald Trump's legitimacy as president, saying "he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf." Trump responded by calling Carter "a terrible president."

Carter also made trips to communist North Korea. A 1994 visit defused a nuclear crisis, as President Kim Il Sung agreed to freeze his nuclear program in exchange for resumed dialog with the United States. That led to a deal in which North Korea, in return for aid, promised not to restart its nuclear reactor or reprocess the plant's spent fuel.

But Carter irked Democratic President Bill Clinton's administration by announcing the deal with North Korea's leader without first checking with Washington.

In 2010, Carter won the release of an American sentenced to eight years hard labor for illegally entering North Korea.

Carter wrote more than two dozen books, ranging from a presidential memoir to a children's book and poetry, as well as works about religious faith and diplomacy. His book "Faith: A Journey for All," was published in 2018.

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Blue-ish? How Minnesota historically voted in presidential elections — and why it changed

Mary Murphy — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 11:41:00 GMT

ST. PAUL — Minnesota, which holds the longest Democratic streak in the country, is just days away from the 2024 presidential election. Is the state firmly in the blue camp, or is there a hint of red creeping back into the picture?

Experts break down emerging tensions within the DFL coalition and a strengthening Republican presence in Minnesota, as well as how the state found its way to historic Democratic dominance.

1860-1932: Great Depression, third parties and Humphrey

The earliest records in the Legislative Reference Library of Minnesota’s presidential election results date back to the 1860s. In the state’s early years — 1860 to 1930 — Minnesota was considered a Republican stronghold.

“A lot of that’s the legacy of the Civil War,” said Steven Schier, Carlton College political analyst. “There were many Minnesota Germans, Scandinavians and Irish who served in the Union Army, and that was Lincoln's war, and they were Republicans, and so that that was a long-standing trend in the state.”

Schier says there are similarities between red then and red now.

“Any survey will show you that the rural areas of Minnesota are more than 2-to-1 Republican, and that’s a continuity,” he said. “Culturally conservative, wary of government and governmental intrusions upon their lives and behavior. All those things are true in greater Minnesota in 1880 and in 2024.”

In the 1930s, the Farmer-Labor Party gained popularity and the state, voting blue for the first time, elected Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“During the Depression, we have, across the Midwest, significant farm failures,” said David Schultz, professor of political science at Hamline University. “The Farmer-Labor Party, of course, that gets a big boost during the 1930s, and the Labor party, with Roosevelt’s federal legislation like the Wagner Act, you know, which basically makes it easier to collectively bargain.”

Schultz says this time period marked the “first big transformation” in Minnesota politics.

“There were these so-called third parties, particularly the Farmer-Labor Party in the 1930s that, for a brief moment, was sort of the plurality leader of the state,” said Andrew Karch, political science professor at the University of Minnesota.

In 1944, the Farmer-Labor Party merged with the Democratic party, in part led by well-known Minnesota politician Hubert Humphrey, marking Minnesota’s first shift to blue.

The Farmer-Labor Party — categorized as a far-left-wing socialist party — took hold across the state, and this third-party movement’s leg in Minnesota is the longest-standing affiliate of the national Farmer-Labor movement today.

“Democrats here are called the DFL,” Karch said. “They’re not called the DFL in other parts of the country. The Democratic party, before that merger, was largely concentrated in St Paul. It wasn’t necessarily a statewide force. And so it’s really the moment when that (DFL) coalition is constructed, is really when it becomes more prominent, more important.”

1932-1984: Blue Wave begins: Red flips, Mondale, and nonpartisan politics

From 1932 to 2020, Minnesota voted blue in all but three presidential elections — 1952, 1956 and 1972. Minnesota’s Legislature was officially nonpartisan at this time and would stay that way until 1972.

Schier said he thinks the Legislature was “actually quite partisan,” and that it just operated publicly as nonpartisan. Schultz suspects the Legislature being nonpartisan could have left some room for these red flips to occur in the ’40s and ’60s.

In 1952 and 1956, Minnesota voted for Dwight D. Eisenhower, a moderate Republican who won steadily across the country with an electorate of 442-89 in 1952 and 547-73 in 1956.

“Clearly, Eisenhower is a war hero,” Schultz said. “Adlai Stevenson is kind of a progressive candidate, and that sort of intellectual left … it doesn’t really appeal necessarily to the working class.”

In 1972, Minnesota voted for Richard Nixon — it was the last time Minnesota went red on the electoral map.

This was another one of the nation’s “landslide victories” when Nixon won 520-17, and Minnesota by a close margin of 95,000 votes, around 5%. Schultz referenced this election as the “Minnesota Miracle.”

“Nixon was clearly the stronger candidate in Minnesota, and again, this is still a state that’s nominally nonpartisan,” Schultz said. “The national seats, we’ve elected Democratic senators and so forth, but for the most part, I would just say that Nixon just ran a better campaign.”

1984 marked another narrow red flip when Minnesota voted for its hometown politician Walter Mondale in Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory of 525-13. Mondale won Minnesota by 3,000 votes, or 0.18%.

“Had it not been Mondale, Reagan would have won Minnesota. I mean, Mondale was just popular enough, you know, having been from here,” Schultz said. “But I mean, Reagan was incredibly popular. His ‘84 campaign was probably one of the best presidential campaigns ever.”

Mondale served as Minnesota attorney general and U.S. senator, pushing civil rights policies such as the Fair Housing Act before eventually serving as Jimmy Carter’s VP.

“Mondale had always been a liberal Democrat, and his party in the mid-’70s moved against the Vietnam War, and he moved for it,” Schier said. “Of course, he was liberated by the fact that Hubert Humphrey was not vice president. He didn’t have to deal with an unpopular administration policy.”

Schultz points to this Mondale era and the ’70s as when the DFL stronghold truly began in Minnesota.

“It’s really Wendy Anderson getting elected as governor, and it’s the Legislature changes to become a partisan legislature (when) the Democratic Party really becomes the dominant party in Minnesota,” Schultz said. “It’s the party of Wendy Anderson, Hubert Humphrey, Freeman and Walter Mondale.”

1972-2024: Modern-day shifts, and can Minnesota call itself blue?

Minnesota grazed a red flip in 2000 with George W. Bush and again in 2016 when Hillary Clinton won the state by only 45,000 votes.

“After ‘16, when Clinton barely survived, you would think we would be a potential battleground,” Schultz said. “Partly why it got so close is Clinton violated the most important rule of politics: She took voters for granted. She didn’t come back here and campaign and Trump did and almost cost you the state of Minnesota in the process.”

Karch said some pockets of Minnesota that used to be considered DFL strongholds are “shifting in important ways.”

“There’s a tension right within the DFL coalition, and you’ve seen that tension lead to a shift in politics in the Iron Range, and with respect to the suburbs, I think it’s reflective of some of the shifts that are happening across the country,” he said.

The Iron Range has shifted red since its election of Rep. Pete Stauber, and suburbs have turned more blue since they elected Rep. Dean Phillips, for example. Schier said culturally conservative Democrats have left the DFL, which is, in part, why the Iron Range may have shifted.

“A couple of generations ago, politics in Minnesota may have been pretty distinctive, and it may have been about a different set of issues,” Karch said. “Today, everything seems to be much more nationalized, states are addressing the same issues, the same sort of partisan divides exist.”

Schier commented on these “tensions” in the DFL, saying that its namesake is an attempt to be inclusive. He said that while the party holds strong for laborers, the farmers have pretty much left the party.

Schultz said he thinks Minnesota is more of a toss-up in state politics, but in presidential elections, he said Minnesota’s metropolitan area accounts for around 56% of the electorate, making it hard for it to turn red.

“The fact that no Republican has won statewide office since Tim Pawlenty … right now I would say, it looks more blue-ish than it does look purple, but below the presidential level, it’s entirely possible that the Legislature could flip,” Schultz said.

Karch said that when people look at Minnesota politics, they often forget to look beyond presidential elections.

“Minnesota is a pretty competitive state where both parties have a strong base of support,” he said. “Republicans have won some statewide races for senator for governor. The outset is, it’s important to acknowledge that the state is more competitive than it appears, if you look beyond the presidential level.”

Schier also said the best term to describe Minnesota is “blue-ish.”

“The Democrats function better at election-related activities, have better funding, and are able to recruit quality candidates on average than the Republicans,” Schier said. “Add up those advantages and you get: blue-ish.”

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Range Republicans oppose deal to sell state land in BWCAW to feds

Jimmy Lovrien — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 21:25:49 GMT

DULUTH — Republican state lawmakers from the Iron Range oppose a proposed deal to sell approximately 80,000 acres of state-owned school trust land scattered throughout the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to the federal government, which already controls the area.

The five legislators instead said the state should exchange its land within the BWCAW for federal land outside the wilderness.

Last month, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Office of �� Trust Lands proposed selling the land and said it was considering buying other school trust land outside the BWCAW from the environmental nonprofit The Conservation Fund. �� trust lands are intended to support Minnesota school districts by generating revenue from mining and timber harvesting on the land, but both activities are banned within the BWCAW, leaving the state unable to use the land locked in the wilderness for its designated purpose.

In an Aug. 15 letter to DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen, the five Republican lawmakers argued the proposal would violate federal law, which requires state or private land to be exchanged for federal land of equal value instead of sold, and that additional, active school trust lands would generate more ongoing funds for schools than a one-time sale.

"While the price of the proposed land sale is still not known, any one-time payment pales in comparison to ongoing revenues that would be generated for the Permanent �� Fund if these lands are exchanged for federally owned lands where economic activity may occur," the lawmakers wrote.

State Rep. Roger Skraba, R-Ely, led the letter, which was signed by State Reps. Ben Davis, R-Merrifield, and Spencer Igo, R-Wabana Township, and State Sens. Justin Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, and Robert Farnsworth, R-Hibbing.

In a statement Friday, the DNR stood by its agreement to sell the land.

"The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources believes that the agreement between state and federal partners upholds Minnesota’s fiduciary responsibility to generate income for the Permanent �� Fund and helps to provide a continual source of funding for Minnesota’s K-12 schools," the agency said.

Under the agreement, the state would remove the school trust designation from the 80,000 acres before the federal government purchased the land with Land and Water Conservation Funds.

The proposal to sell the state land replaced a plan introduced in 2012 that would have seen the state give the land to the federal government in exchange for federal land outside the BWCAW that the state would then use as school trust land.

While environmental groups hailed the decision to sell, some mining and logging interests wanted a total land exchange to transfer more federal land into state control, potentially easing access for mining and logging companies.

With the land exchange called off, the U.S. Forest Service is looking to buy 15,000 acres of land in the Superior National Forest, but outside the 1.1-million acre BWCAW, from The Conservation Fund.

The DNR has previously said it is consulting with the U.S. Forest Service, tribes and counties for the possible purchase of other school trust lands outside the BWCAW from the same group.

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What to expect from the 2024 Democratic National Convention

Hunter Dunteman — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 13:00:00 GMT

CHICAGO — Tens of thousands of Democrats are expected to flood the streets of Chicago next week, as Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are poised to officially accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States.

The Windy City is playing host to this year’s Democratic National Convention, set to be held at the United Center Monday, Aug. 19 through Thursday, Aug. 22.

While the anticipated acceptance of the party's nomination is certainly the convention's main focus, the four-day event is expected to feature speeches from current and former presidents, prominent Democrats and pop culture figures, as well as the adoption of the Democratic Party’s platform.

Here’s a look at what to expect from the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC):

Who is set to speak at the DNC?

The most prominent speakers at this year’s convention will take the stage during the event’s main sessions, which run from 5:30-10 p.m. on Monday and 6-10 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

While a full list of speakers has not been confirmed, nor has their order, there’s some indication on which big names will see the stage.

President Joe Biden is expected as the keynote speaker, with a Monday evening slot. The White House said this week that Biden is looking forward to speaking “directly to the American people,” though Politico reported that the president doesn’t intend to remain in Chicago for the remainder of the convention.

Sharing the stage with Biden on Monday is 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who previously called a potential Harris presidency a “fresh start for American politics.”

On Tuesday, former President Barack Obama is expected to speak, with some speculating former First Lady Michelle Obama will also appear. The Chicago icons have already endorsed Harris. Before Biden abandoned his bid for re-election, Barack played a hand in raising more than $50 million toward a Biden-Harris ticket.

Wednesday will see former President Bill Clinton, one of the first heavy-hitting Democrats to endorse Harris, speak before introducing Walz to the stage. As is tradition, Harris will speak during Thursday’s primetime slot.

It’s unclear what, exactly, Walz plans for his speech, and whether it will be a departure from speeches he’s already given, which have generally focused on women’s healthcare, tax cuts for working families, “common sense” gun laws and more.

Further, Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Jason Carter is also expected to speak on behalf of his grandfather, former President Jimmy Carter, who remains in hospice care as he nears age 100. Others rumored to speak include Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, pop culture icon Beyonce and more.

What’s on the Democrats’ platform?

Another vital part of the convention is the adoption of the party’s official platform.

One significant problem with the Democrats’ platform is that it hasn’t been updated since July 13 — more than a week before Biden announced he’d be dropping out of the presidential race. Though the document is non-binding, it does give some insight into the goals of the Harris campaign.

The draft platform calls for restoring abortion rights across America, capping child care costs for low-income families, working with Congress to find a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and furthering advancements to green energy initiatives.

The platform also backs Israel's right to self-defense, endorses Biden's efforts to strike a ceasefire agreement, calls for stronger gun safety laws and focuses on cutting taxes for working families.

The 80-page draft platform can be read online. For comparison, the Republican Party's platform was 16 pages long.

Daytime events include 33 caucus and council meetings

When Democrats aren’t gathered at the United Center for nighttime speeches, they’ll be plugging away at business items across town at the McCormick Place, North America’s largest conference center.

There, the DNC plans to host 33 different caucus and council meetings from various groups, such as the Black Caucus, Youth Council, Women’s Caucus, Small Business Council, Labor Council and more.

Each caucus and council meeting will feature various leading Democrats and other guests speaking on issues that impact their group directly or indirectly.

All caucus and council meetings will be available to the general public via the DNC’s YouTube page.

Who might be protesting?

As many as 40,000 protesters are expected to appear outside the DNC, which could cause issues to the event’s security and transportation.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, planned protests include those by the Coalition to March on the DNC, the Illinois Policy Institute, Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws, the Poor People’s Army and more.

The Secret Service has established strict security zones around all DNC-related venues, and expected disruptions are minimal, according to multiple media outlets.

How can I watch the DNC?

DNC officials intend to make this year’s convention available to as many Americans as possible.

“The convention team set out with an ambitious goal of reaching more Americans than ever before,” said DNC Executive Director Alex Hornbrook. “With more and more Americans consuming their news in new and innovative ways, Democrats stand ready to meet them where they are – and to bring our vision for a brighter future to households all across the country.”

The official live stream of the DNC will be available on the convention’s website. Feeds will also be available on official convention channels on YouTube, X, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch and Amazon Prime Video.

SmartTV users can also access the convention via AppleTV, RokuTV and FireTV, while cable subscribers can watch through Comcast Xfinity X1, Comcast Xfinity Flex, DirecTV via Satellite, DirecTV satellite-free and DirecTV Stream and U-verse TV.

Various national media outlets will also stream live coverage of most sessions.

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USDA announces $1.5 billion in funding for conservation projects

Noah Fish — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:12:20 GMT

MANKATO, Minn. — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack picked Minnesota to announce the next round of historic USDA investments.

Vilsack announced on Wednesday that USDA is investing $1.5 billion in 2024 to support conservation initiatives.

The latest investment, made available through the Farm Bill and the Inflation Reduction Act, will support projects through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which prioritizes climate-smart agriculture, urban agriculture, conservation, and environmental justice.

The funding will also allow the NRCS to streamline and simplify RCPP and improve processes and implementation. USDA is accepting project proposals now through July 2 through the RCPP portal. NRCS will be hosting four webinars to provide additional information.

Changing U.S. agriculture

Vilsack mapped out the USDA's climate-smart investments thus far on a whiteboard to a room of farmers and representatives from the state's ag industry inside the Ostrander Auditorium in Mankato State University's student union.

"It's appropriate for me to announce this here, in large part because you have been such a good steward of the land and water, and I think have always been a leader nationally in this effort," he said of Minnesota. "I've been in Minnesota a couple of times where I've given this whiteboard speech, and I think it's important for me to come back periodically and say, OK, this is what we said we were going to do, and this is what we've done."

He described the report left behind by Bob Bergland, U.S. agriculture secretary under President Jimmy Carter, who was from Minnesota, when he left office in 1981.

"He looked back at the changes that were made in the 1970s in farm policy in this country, and he expressed some concerns about the changes," Vilsack said. "We had moved away from a Depression-era supply management system to a more market-oriented system in which farmers were encouraged to plant fence row to fence row."

Vilsack went on to say that American farmers and producers became the best in the world, and "extraordinarily productive."

"But (Bergland) was concerned about this notion of focusing solely and completely on productivity, without also keeping an eye on the profitability of farming, and he was concerned that it would result in larger and larger farms and fewer farmers," he said. "As I read this report, it occurred to me to take a look at whether or not his prediction of potentially fewer farms was borne out. Well, it turns out it was, and since he wrote that report, we've lost 544,970 farms in the United States of America."

That's around the current number of combined farms in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma and Missouri, Vilsack said.

The push toward a more climate-smart agriculture industry under the Biden-Harris administration is not only meant to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners adopt and expand conservation strategies, but also to help save farmers money, and create new revenue streams and increase productivity.

The investments through the Inflation Reduction Act and Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities that USDA are estimated to support over 180,000 farms and over 225 million acres in the next five years, according to the agency.

"These are our new markets. These are better markets, and they're also farmer-owned, and this is a better view," Vilsack said. "Now all of a sudden, what you have is an entire system that's designed to help small and mid-sized owners; producers have multiple ways to make more money with better value, with what they grow and raise; and to have additional revenue sources. We think this is a better option than the notion of getting bigger and bigger."

Dan Glessing, president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau, said the latest investment means more opportunities for more producers.

"As you go through that whole whiteboard, there's opportunities for all types of production, and it's all voluntary and incentive-based," he said. "At the end of the day, what's right for one farm isn't going to be right for another farm, but everybody can pick and choose and really have some opportunities to stay on the farm, and that's exactly what we're all about."

What is RCPP?

RCPP is a partner-driven approach to conservation that funds solutions to natural resource challenges on agricultural land. In November 2023, NRCS announced more than $1 billion for 81 RCPP projects across the country. Since 2020, NRCS has invested a total of $1.8 billion in 256 RCPP projects covering 49 states and territories.

Through a concerted effort in 2023 using feedback and expertise from partners, employees, leadership and stakeholders, NRCS identified several improvements to RCPP that the agency has implemented and will continue to implement in the months and years ahead.

“We had unprecedented demand for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program last year, showing the robust interest in conservation from farmers and ranchers,” Vilsack said. “We’re looking forward to seeing what the more streamlined and customer-oriented Regional Conservation Partnership Program can do to get more conservation on the ground in the coming months and years.”

Two separate funding opportunities were announced on Wednesday: RCPP Classic and RCPP Alternative Funding Arrangements.

RCPP Classic projects are implemented using NRCS contracts and easements with producers, landowners and communities in collaboration with project partners. Through RCPP AFA, the lead partner works directly with agricultural producers to support the development of innovative conservation approaches that would not otherwise be available under RCPP Classic.

NRCS will set aside $100 million for Tribal-led projects to be used between both funding opportunities.

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Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court, dies at 93

Reuters — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 15:46:40 GMT

WASHINGTON — Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, whose centrist views and shrewd negotiating skills allowed her to steer the nation’s law for much of her quarter-century tenure, died on Friday at the age of 93, the court said.

The court said in a statement that O'Connor died in Phoenix of complications related to advanced dementia and a respiratory illness.

Chief Justice John Roberts recalled O'Connor as having "blazed a historic trail as our nation’s first female justice."

"She met that challenge with undaunted determination, indisputable ability, and engaging candor," he said. "We at the Supreme Court mourn the loss of a beloved colleague, a fiercely independent defender of the rule of law, and an eloquent advocate for civics education."

O'Connor, who retired from the nation's highest court in 2006, had in her later years been diagnosed with dementia and announced in October 2018 that she was withdrawing from public life.

When Republican former President George W. Bush replaced the pragmatic westerner with the more ideologically rigid conservative Justice Samuel Alito, the already-conservative court moved further to the right.

O'Connor, who grew up in an Arizona ranch family, navigated the male-dominated world of politics in her home state and then of law in the nation’s capital. Her 1981 appointment by Republican President Ronald Reagan made her the Supreme Court's first woman justice nearly two centuries after the Supreme Court was established in 1789, but her place in history went beyond breaking men-only barriers.

Although she was conservative by nature, she became the court's ideological center. With pragmatism and a knack for building consensus, she controlled decisions on the most contentious issues of her era, including helping to preserve a woman’s right to abortion and upholding affirmative action on college campuses.

O'Connor described her tenure as similar to walking on wet cement “because every opinion you offer, you’ve left a footprint.”

With her ranch-bred work ethic and plain-spoken way, O’Connor’s mantra was "be constructive."

Unlike any of the justices who served during her time, O'Connor had run for elective office and knew how to work a backroom and count votes. The former Republican state senator often strategized with individual justices to try to force the hands of others and reach the crucial five votes among the nine for a majority decision.

O'Connor avoided sweeping pronouncements and voted for incremental change, becoming a pivotal vote on the court in the process. Her views became more liberal with time. After expressing some ambivalence about Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal nationwide, she created a critical alliance in 1992 to affirm Roe’s central holding.

"Some of us as individuals find abortion offensive to our most basic principles or morality but that cannot control (the court’s) decision," she wrote.

The Supreme Court, which has had a 6-3 conservative majority since 2020, overturned the landmark Roe ruling in 2022.

While O'Connor was generally suspicious of racial remedies, she was a crucial vote in 2003 to uphold campus affirmative action favoring racial minorities in admissions.

O'Connor wrote in the ruling that colleges must strive for diversity "if the dream of one nation, indivisible, is to be realized."

The Supreme Court's conservative majority in June struck down race-conscious admissions programs in higher education, effectively prohibiting affirmative action policies long used to increase the number of underrepresented minority students in American colleges.

O’Connor’s views on gay rights evolved, too. In 1986, she voted to uphold a Georgia law prohibiting sexual relations between homosexuals but voted in 2003 to strike down a similar law in Texas.

O'Connor was with the majority when the court ruled 5-4 on ideological lines to stop the Florida presidential vote recount, ensuring that Republican candidate George W. Bush won the presidency over Democrat Al Gore in 2000.

She later expressed regret about the ruling, telling the Chicago Tribune in 2013 that the court did not need to get involved.

Law school at 19

O’Connor was born on March 26, 1930, the eldest of three children of Harry and Ada Mae Day, and growing up on the family’s Lazy B ranch was a hard, lonely life. For school, she was sent to El Paso, Texas, where she lived with her maternal grandparents.

She graduated from high school at age 16, went to Stanford University, and was only 19 when she started law school as one of just five women in the class. Former Chief Justice William Rehnquist was a classmate, and they briefly dated.

O'Connor graduated near the top of her class but was rejected for most law firm jobs. A Los Angeles-based firm offered a job as a legal secretary, but she declined and eventually found work in the San Mateo County, California, attorney’s office.

She and her husband, John, whom she met in law school, later settled in Phoenix. She was raising three sons when she became active in state politics. She was appointed to fill the unexpired term of a state senator in 1969 and then ran successfully to hold the seat.

O'Connor became Arizona Senate majority leader in 1973, the first woman in the country to lead a state senate. She was elected as a state trial judge in 1974, and in 1979 was named to a state appeals court.

O'Connor met then-Chief Justice Warren Burger through mutual friends in 1979. He was impressed and soon made sure O’Connor was invited to national legal conferences.

In 1980, Reagan vowed to appoint a woman to the high court as he was challenging Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter. Soon after Reagan took office, Justice Potter Stewart announced his retirement, and Reagan's short list of women included O’Connor.

Reagan was captivated when he met her. They talked little about law and largely about horses and life in the West. The Senate confirmed O’Connor by a 99-0 vote, and she was sworn in Sept. 25, 1981.

“I think the important fact about my appointment is not that I will decide cases as a woman, but that I am a woman who will get to decide cases,” she told the Ladies’ Home Journal after her confirmation.

She raised awareness of breast cancer, which she survived in 1988 after a mastectomy, and the importance of research into Alzheimer’s disease, which afflicted her husband. She retired in January 2006 to take care of him until his death in 2009.

After leaving the bench, O’Connor dedicated herself to improving civics education, starting a group called iCivics that provided free online resources for middle and high school students. In 2009, Democratic former President Barack Obama presented her at the White House with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor a president can give.

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