Remembering Senator Wellstone, 1980s, by Ed Gross

From MemoryArchive

Who: Ed Gross
What: Remembering Senator Wellstone
When: 1980s
Where: Minnesota

In 1987, they moved the caucus states up, so Minnesota became prominent in the '88 presidential race. I was with the [Jesse] Jackson folks. A group of us had this idea that Paul Wellstone would be great as the co-chair for the Jackson campaign in Minnesota. It was my job to call Paul and ask him to be the co-chair of Jackson '88. The first thing he said was, "Ed, you're crazy! I'm Jewish. How can I be with Jesse Jackson?"

We met at the New Riverside Café. And the whole discussion changed when we started to talk about the fact that every time Jesse Jackson speaks, he risks his life. He risks his life. He gets death threats all the time, but he is still doing this. That was the thing that turned Paul. And so Paul agreed to meet Jesse and they got along and Paul came on board. That was huge. That was the beginning. The first time we as progressives in Minnesota ever showed any strength was Jackson '88 with Paul as a leader.

Politics is like the circus. It's not always pretty, and it is hard, hard work. You give up a lot of personal life and you give up a lot of family, and a lot of people can't do it. The 1990 campaign, so much of that was Paul. It was Paul, not giving up. His strength was bringing people together. I always look at things as political, as strategic, because that's what I do. But Paul brought people together. And he brought people together for the first time--he built a new coalition. Women and labor and environmental and people of color and seniors. For a while we actually thought this new Democratic coalition could be spread across the country, because the old one had fallen apart