Walter Mondale:
A Vice Presidential Unit

Walter Mondale, a democrat, was the 42nd Vice President of the United States. After serving in the Korean War, Mondale started to practice law in his birth state of Minnesota. Success as a lawyer and involvement in Minnesota politics earned him the position of attorney general in 1960 and a resignation in Senate led to his appointment in 1964. He would go on to serve in Senate for 12 years and was characterized by support of liberal housing, tax and civil rights platforms. Mondale was given the opportunity to run as Vice President by Jimmy Carter, and the two won the 1976 Presidential race. Carter and Mondale were unable to win in the following election. In 1980, he won the Democratic presidential nomination, but was pummeled by Reagan at the polls. After serving briefly in Bill Clinton’s administration, Mondale retired in 1996. Today, he continues to be active in the Democratic party and runs his own law firm.

Political Party: Democrat
President: Jimmy Carter
Name of his Parents: Theodore S. Mondale and Claribel Hope
Spouse(s): Joan Adams
Yearly Salary as Vice President: $62,500
State of Birth: Minnesota

Trivia Questions:

1) When he ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1984 election, who did he choose to be his running mate?
Geraldine A. Ferraro

2) He was appointed as the U.S. Ambassador for what country?
Japan

Of Note:

• Mondale was the first Vice President to have an office in the White House.
• He was described as the first “activist Vice President”
• Vice Presidents have based many of their current responsibilities on Mondale’s model.





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