Paul was educated in political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1965 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1969.
Career
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
1990
Northfield, Minnesota, United States
Paul Wellstone and his wife Sheila jog to their campaign bus after casting their ballots in their hometown of Northfield, November 6, 1990. Wellstone defeated Rudy Boschwitz in the general election.
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
1991
Richfield, Minnesota, United States
Paul Wellstone, pictured at a 1991 July 4th parade in Richfield, pushed issues, such as universal health care, protecting the environment, ending violence against women.
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
1991
Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., United States
Senator Paul Wellstone and Liza Borg as new staffers move boxes and a trash can into the Senator's new townhouse on Capitol Hill, March 1991 (Photo By Laura Patterson)
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
1991
Senator Paul Wellstone, in a meeting, having an important discussion. December 19, 1991 (Photo By Laura Patterson)
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
1992
4 Pennsylvania Plaza, New York, NY 10001, United States
Senator Paul Wellstone, and a friend's son during the 1992 Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden. July 16, 1992 (Photo By Maureen Keating)
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
1996
Senator Paul Wellstone smiles with his wife Sheila at a comment made during a speech at the 1996 DFL state convention.
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
1999
First St SE, Washington, DC 20004, United States
Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota as he rides the escalator of the United States Capitol building on his way to the second to last day of the Senate Impeachment Trial of President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1999, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly)
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
Photo of Paul Wellstone
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
North, 3300 Century Avenue, White Bear Lake, MN 55110, United States
Senator Paul Wellstone sits on the floor to sign a placard Carol Weisenhaus of Stillwater put on her cart at Century Community College in White Bear Lake. At right is Sheila Wellstone.
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
Senator Paul Wellstone held aloft a "Protect Our Families" sign as he joined protesters at a State Capitol rally protesting trade policy to coincide with the free-trade talks in Quebec City. To the chants of "six more years," Wellstone took the podium and addressed the crowd.
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
Photo of Senator Paul Wellstone
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
Senator Paul Wellstone
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
Photo of Senator Paul Wellstone
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
235 Marshall Ave, St Paul, MN 55102, United States
Paul Wellstone is at the Deaf Aware fair at the St. Paul Technical College. His sign language interpreter, to his left, is Carol McWade.
Gallery of Paul Wellstone
Rudy Perpich (with glasses) is hugging Wellstone, man to center-right is Mark Dayton. At left front appear to be (from left) Mark Wellstone and Marcia Wellstone (two of the Wellstone children). The woman by a podium with back to the camera is probably Sheila Wellstone.
Paul Wellstone and his wife Sheila jog to their campaign bus after casting their ballots in their hometown of Northfield, November 6, 1990. Wellstone defeated Rudy Boschwitz in the general election.
Paul Wellstone, pictured at a 1991 July 4th parade in Richfield, pushed issues, such as universal health care, protecting the environment, ending violence against women.
Senator Paul Wellstone and Liza Borg as new staffers move boxes and a trash can into the Senator's new townhouse on Capitol Hill, March 1991 (Photo By Laura Patterson)
4 Pennsylvania Plaza, New York, NY 10001, United States
Senator Paul Wellstone, and a friend's son during the 1992 Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden. July 16, 1992 (Photo By Maureen Keating)
Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota as he rides the escalator of the United States Capitol building on his way to the second to last day of the Senate Impeachment Trial of President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1999, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly)
Paul was educated in political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1965 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1969.
North, 3300 Century Avenue, White Bear Lake, MN 55110, United States
Senator Paul Wellstone sits on the floor to sign a placard Carol Weisenhaus of Stillwater put on her cart at Century Community College in White Bear Lake. At right is Sheila Wellstone.
Senator Paul Wellstone held aloft a "Protect Our Families" sign as he joined protesters at a State Capitol rally protesting trade policy to coincide with the free-trade talks in Quebec City. To the chants of "six more years," Wellstone took the podium and addressed the crowd.
Rudy Perpich (with glasses) is hugging Wellstone, man to center-right is Mark Dayton. At left front appear to be (from left) Mark Wellstone and Marcia Wellstone (two of the Wellstone children). The woman by a podium with back to the camera is probably Sheila Wellstone.
How the Rural Poor Got Power: Narrative of a Grass-Roots Organizer
(Wellstone's first book, published in 1978 when he was a p...)
Wellstone's first book, published in 1978 when he was a professor at Carleton College in MN. Describes Wellstone's grassroots work with OBRC (Organization for a Better Rice Country) which helped poor people gain a political voice to get better health and welfare benefits.
The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda
(From his earliest childhood memories to the college class...)
From his earliest childhood memories to the college classroom, from rural Minnesota farm fields and the defense of workers' rights to his 1990 election campaign promises of politics for the benefit of the people, The Conscience of a Liberal candidly discusses Wellstone's life experiences and the coming-of-age of his political views. What emerges is an intriguing inside look at Wellstone's crusade to assert an unabashedly liberal agenda. From the moment he was elected, Wellstone has passionately articulated a path to economic and social justice for all citizens, justice not contingent on the size of a person's bank account or their political influence. A call for personal politics and deep commitment to beliefs, Wellstone's tenure as a U.S. senator has been a vigorous, at times outraged, and always active fight for support for farmers, working families, and other Minnesotans; for decent jobs, improved health care, a good education, and retirement security. At once responding to the conservative hijacking of compassion as a political yardstick and explaining his own political record, Wellstone engagingly elucidates what contrasts conservative and liberal interests and, as always, rouses progressives to influence the future of American politics.
Paul David Wellstone was a United States Senator from Minnesota. He also was a former professor of political science at Carleton College. Wellstone was the author of three books.
Background
Ethnicity:
Wellstone's father was a Russian Jewish immigrant and his mother was the daughter of Russian immigrants.
Paul Wellstone was born on July 21, 1944, in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. He was the son of Leon and Minnie Wellstone.
Education
Paul grew up in Arlington and attended Wakefield and Yorktown high schools. Wellstone was educated in political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1965 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1969.
In 1970 Paul Wellstone began teaching at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota while continuing as a political activist. He taught there for a total of 21 years - up until the time he was elected to the United States Senate.
At Carlton, he became known for his political activism, joining protests against the Vietnam war and against other United States military actions, including the bombing of Cambodia. In the service of this last cause, he was arrested for civil disobedience.
It was during his time at Carlton that Wellstone developed the oratorical style for which he became known as a senator - asking questions, engaging his listeners, and challenging them to get involved in the issues he discussed. As a precursor to his political career, Wellstone co-chaired Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign in Minnesota, switching his efforts to helping the campaign of Michael Dukakis after he, not Jackson, received the Democratic nomination. Two years after that presidential campaign, Wellston ran his own campaign for Senate, unseating the incumbent, Republican Rudy Boschwitz.
Wellstone was elected to his first term in the Senate with an unorthodox, populist campaign that upset a much-better-funded Republican incumbent. Wellstone won that first campaign with 50 percent of the vote to Boschwitz's 48 percent. Among his campaign promises were statements that he would create controversy, fight for liberal causes, and serve in the Senate for only two terms. He ran again in 1996 after his first term was up, again beating Boschwitz with 50 percent of the vote, this time to Boschwitz's 41 percent. At the time of his death, Wellstone was on his way toward breaking one of his campaign promises by running for a third term.
Most observers agreed that Wellstone, who began his first term in office in 1991, made good on his promise to fight for the causes he believed in, even when he appeared to have little chance of winning. For instance, he was one of the few in Congress to vote in October of 2002 against authorizing President George W. Bush to invade Iraq. He also strongly opposed the first President Bush on the first Persian Gulf War in 1991. He opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993 and was an advocate for gun control laws and a proponent of abortion rights.
Between the two wars in the Persian Gulf, Wellstone became known as a fierce advocate for advancing human rights as a foreign policy issue, for seeking to increase government funding for health care, welfare, and education. Not one for compromise, Wellstone often gave impassioned speeches advancing his views on the Senate floor, even in cases where it was clear that his cause would not win.
Wellstone considered the idea of running for president in 2000 but decided against it after doctors advised him that the ruptured disk in his back for which he was being treated would not stand up to the rigors of campaign travel.
Wellstone died in a plane crash in a rural area of Minnesota on October 25, 2002, while on his way to a funeral for the father of a state legislator. Also killed in the crash were Wellstone's wife, Sheila, their daughter, Marcia, as well five other people on board the plane.
At the time of his death, Wellstone was heavily campaigning for his third term as a United States Senator, even though, as he had publicly revealed, he suffered from a mild form of multiple sclerosis. Both President Bush and his Republican party invested heavily in trying to defeat him. According to polls, he had a good chance of defeating his challenger, Republican Norm Coleman. The race would have been a close one, and on it depended the fate of the Democrats' control of the Senate; a win by Wellstone would have preserved the Democrats' single-seat Senate lead, while a loss would allow the Republicans to take control. After Wellstone's death, Coleman was elected to fill Wellstone's vacant Senate seat.
Wellstone was the author of three books: "How the Rural Poor Got Power: Narrative of a Grassroots Organizer" (1978), "Powerline: The First Battle of America's Energy War" (1981), co-written with Barry M. Casper, and "The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda" (2001).
(Wellstone's first book, published in 1978 when he was a p...)
1978
Religion
Wellstone was a Judaist.
Politics
Paul Wellstone, a Democratic senator from Minnesota, was known for his strongly liberal positions and beliefs. During his eleven years in the Senate, he was for affordable health care, strict environmental protection, campaign finance reform, raising the minimum wage, arms control, veterans' benefits, gay rights, and protecting Social Security and Medicare from privatization. He was opposed to extravagant expenditures on weapons. He voted against the Iraq War resolution shortly before his death.
Views
Quotations:
"Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people's lives."
Personality
Paul was respected as a man of principle who did not forsake his convictions for political expediency.
Connections
Paul Wellstone married Sheila Ison in 1963. The couple had three children: Marcia Wellstone, David Wellstone, and Mark Wellstone, who now co-chairs The Wellstone Action non-profit group.