Mondale left mark on Duluth, Iron Range
The former vice president was no stranger to Northeastern Minnesota, making frequent campaign stops and forging lifelong friendships with local political and legal leaders. 5:40 am, Apr. 21, 2021 ×
Vice President Walter Mondale speaks at Hibbing High School in January 1980. (File / News Tribune)
Ross Litman was on a late-season campaign swing across the Iron Range in 2002 when he bumped into Walter Mondale, who was delivering a stump speech of his own at the Iron Man monument in Chisholm.
Litman was a first-time candidate who had earlier received the former vice president s endorsement in his successful bid for St. Louis County sheriff. Mondale, meanwhile, was courting voters as a last-minute replacement for U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash just 12 days before the general election.
Walter Mondale still in demand and politically engaged at 91 startribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from startribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Heaven Heinzer-Clark, a 15-year-old student on the Iron Range, traveled more than 70 miles south to stand in the morning rain and protest outside of the St. Louis County Courthouse in Duluth.
She had a lot on her mind. She has been watching the trial of Derek Chauvin, the ex-Minneapolis cop charged in the death of George Floyd. And she just learned that police officers in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis, shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright on Sunday.
She considered the publicity surrounding the deaths of these two men and thought about the general lack of media coverage or interest concerning the death of Estavon Elioff, a 19-year-old Hispanic man from the Range city of Virginia, who was shot and killed by two white St. Louis County Sheriffâs deputies in Mountain Iron on Dec. 5, 2020.
Rick Lubbers column: Information void during standoff leads to fruitful talks between media, city of Duluth duluthnewstribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from duluthnewstribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.