Paul Wellstone

Paul David Wellstone (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was an American politician and two-term U.S. Senator from Minnesota. He was a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and was a professor of political science at Carleton College before being elected to the Senate in 1990. Wellstone was a liberal and a leading spokesperson for the progressive wing of the national Democratic Party. He served in the Senate until his death in a plane crash on 25 October 2002. His wife, Sheila, and daughter, Marcia, also died in the crash. They had two other grown children, David and Mark, who now co-chair the Wellstone Action nonprofit group.

Early life

Wellstone was born in Washington D.C. to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants, Leon and Minnie Wellstone, and raised in Arlington, Virginia. He attended Yorktown High School in Arlington. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a wrestling scholarship, graduating with a degree in political science in three years. He was an Atlantic Coast Conference champion.

Related Topics:
Washington D.C. - Ukrainian - Jewish - Arlington, Virginia - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Wrestling - Political science - Atlantic Coast Conference

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In 1965 he earned his B.A., and four years later was awarded a Ph.D. in Political Science. Wellstone's 1969 doctoral dissertation at UNC was "Black Militants in the Ghetto: Why They Believe in Violence."

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During the 1970s, he became involved in community organizing, working with the working poor and other politically disenfranchised communities. The first organization he founded was the Organization for a Better Rice County, a group consisting mainly of single parents on welfare, which he organized to advocate for public housing, affordable health care, improved public education, free school lunches, and a publicly-funded day care center. During this same period, he also began organizing with union members, farmers, and liberal activists. Later, he would use these connections in his bid for the Senate.

Related Topics:
Community organizing - Working poor - Disenfranchised - Organization for a Better Rice County - Single parent - Welfare - Advocate - Public housing - Health care - Public education - School lunches - Day care - Union - Farmer - Liberal

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He went on to become a professor of political science at Minnesota's Carleton College where he taught for 21 years until 1990. In 1984, he helped run the 1984 presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson in Minnesota. That same year, he ran for state auditor, but lost to Arne Carlson, who later became governor.

Related Topics:
Carleton College - 1990 - 1984 - Jesse Jackson - State auditor - Arne Carlson - Governor

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He first ran for the Senate in 1990, running a unique, low-budget campaign. With a strong grassroots operation, an old green school bus, and humorous TV commercials, Wellstone upset incumbent Rudy Boschwitz with 50.4% of the votes.

Related Topics:
Grassroots - School bus - TV commercial - Incumbent - Rudy Boschwitz - Vote

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Some credit the upset defeat to a letter Boschwitz wrote to Wellstone days before the election, accusing him of being a "bad Jew" for marrying a Gentile and not raising his children in the Jewish faith. Wellstone's reply, widely broadcast on Minnesota television, was, "I guess Senator Boschwitz has a problem with Christians, then." Boschwitz, like Wellstone, is Jewish.

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He defeated Boschwitz again for re-election in 1996. During that campaign, Boschwitz ran ads accusing Wellstone of being "embarrassingly liberal" and calling him "Senator Welfare". Boschwitz accused Wellstone of flag burning, a move which some believe backfired. Up until that point, the race had been dead even, but Wellstone went to beat Boschwitz by a nine-point margin.

Related Topics:
1996 - Flag burning

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