born Jan. 5, 1928, Ceylon, Minn., U.S.
U.S. politician.
He was active in Minnesota's Farmer-Labor Party and worked for Hubert H. Humphrey 's U.S. Senate campaign in 1948. After graduating from the University of Minnesota law school in 1956, he was Minnesota's attorney general from 1960 to his appointment in 1964 to fill Humphrey's unexpired Senate term when Humphrey won election as vice president under Lyndon B. Johnson . He won election to the Senate in 1966 and reelection in 1972. In 1976 he was elected vice president under Jimmy Carter . In 1984 he won the Democratic presidential nomination but lost the election to Ronald Reagan . He resumed his law practice and later served as ambassador to Japan (1993–96). In 2002 he campaigned for a seat in the U.S. Senate after Paul Wellstone, a Minnesota senator, died in a plane crash days before the election; Mondale was narrowly defeated.