Skip Humphrey
Encyclopedia
Hubert Horatio "Skip" Humphrey III (born June 26, 1942) is a former Minnesota
politician who served as attorney general of the state from 1983 to 1999. Prior to that, he was a state senator
from 1973 to 1983. He currently leads the Office of Older Americans as the Assistant Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
A Democrat
, Humphrey is the son of the late Vice President Hubert Humphrey
and the late U.S. Senator Muriel Humphrey
. He attended American University
where he was a member of the Alpha Sigma Phi
, Beta Chi chapter, and is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School
.
in 1972 and served as a state senator from 1973 to 1983. He was elected attorney general in 1982, one of the DFL Party's most popular candidates ever in terms of popular vote. He served in the office for four consecutive terms, from 1983 to 1999.
In 1988, he ran for the same US Senate
seat that his father and his mother previously held, but was defeated by incumbent Independent-Republican
Senator David Durenberger
. Despite this loss, Humphrey remained well regarded in Minnesota political circles and around the country: he served as president of the National Association of Attorneys General
, and in 1996 President Bill Clinton
gratefully welcomed him as the state chairperson of his reelection campaign. By 1998 he was again encouraged to run for higher office, and he entered the DFL gubernatorial primary where he won handily against a crowded field (which included another scion of an eminent Minnesota political family, Ted Mondale
). However, in the general election for governor
, both Humphrey and Republican candidate Norm Coleman
lost to the third-party candidacy of Jesse Ventura
in a tumultuous race
.
-inspired political philosophy, and throughout his career he remained devoted to traditional progressive
ideals as well as their more modern manifestations: "If you think that being too liberal means raising the minimum wage, advocating health care for everyone, protecting the environment, taking on the tobacco industry, enacting campaign finance reform, and putting more cops on the streets, then guess what? That's what Minnesotans want." One of his most passionately held principles was an implacable opposition to tobacco
and its powerful political lobby: in 1999, the World Health Organization
awarded him the Director-General's Prize for outstanding global contribution to tobacco control.
Humphrey is a senior fellow at the University of Minnesota
where he teaches public health policy and law, and he is also a consultant to Tunheim Partners, a Minnesota-based communications and public affairs firm. Humphrey served as the president of the Minnesota chapter of the AARP, and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National AARP.
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
politician who served as attorney general of the state from 1983 to 1999. Prior to that, he was a state senator
Minnesota Senate
The Minnesota Senate is the upper house in the Minnesota Legislature. There are 67 members, half as many as are in the Minnesota House of Representatives. In terms of membership, it is the largest upper house of any state legislature. Each Senate district in the state includes an A and B House...
from 1973 to 1983. He currently leads the Office of Older Americans as the Assistant Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
A Democrat
Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party is a major political party in the state of Minnesota and the state affiliate of the Democratic Party. It was created on April 15, 1944, with the merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer–Labor Party...
, Humphrey is the son of the late Vice President Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
and the late U.S. Senator Muriel Humphrey
Muriel Humphrey
Muriel Fay Buck Humphrey Brown was the widow of former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Following her husband's death, she was appointed to his seat in the United States Senate, thus being the first wife of a Vice President to hold public office...
. He attended American University
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...
where he was a member of the Alpha Sigma Phi
Alpha Sigma Phi
Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity is a social fraternity with 71 active chapters and 9 colonies. Founded at Yale in 1845, it is the 10th oldest fraternity in the United States....
, Beta Chi chapter, and is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School
University of Minnesota Law School
The University of Minnesota Law School, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, is a professional school of the University of Minnesota. The school offers a Juris Doctor , Masters of Law for Foreign Lawyers, and joint degrees with J.D./M.B.A., J.D./M.P.A, J.D./M.A., J.D./M.S., J.D./Ph.D.,...
.
Political life
Humphrey was elected to the Minnesota SenateMinnesota Senate
The Minnesota Senate is the upper house in the Minnesota Legislature. There are 67 members, half as many as are in the Minnesota House of Representatives. In terms of membership, it is the largest upper house of any state legislature. Each Senate district in the state includes an A and B House...
in 1972 and served as a state senator from 1973 to 1983. He was elected attorney general in 1982, one of the DFL Party's most popular candidates ever in terms of popular vote. He served in the office for four consecutive terms, from 1983 to 1999.
In 1988, he ran for the same US Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
seat that his father and his mother previously held, but was defeated by incumbent Independent-Republican
Republican Party of Minnesota
The Republican Party of Minnesota is the Minnesota branch of the United States Republican Party. Elected by the party’s state central committee in June 2009, its chairman is Tony Sutton, and its deputy-chairman is Michael Brodkorb.-Early history:...
Senator David Durenberger
David Durenberger
David Ferdinand Durenberger is an American politician and a former Republican member of the U.S. Senate from Minnesota.- Early life :...
. Despite this loss, Humphrey remained well regarded in Minnesota political circles and around the country: he served as president of the National Association of Attorneys General
National Association of Attorneys General
The National Association of Attorneys General is an organization of 56 state and territorial attorneys general in the United States...
, and in 1996 President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
gratefully welcomed him as the state chairperson of his reelection campaign. By 1998 he was again encouraged to run for higher office, and he entered the DFL gubernatorial primary where he won handily against a crowded field (which included another scion of an eminent Minnesota political family, Ted Mondale
Ted Mondale
Theodore A. "Ted" Mondale is a politician and entrepreneur. He is the elder son of the former senator, ambassador and Vice President Walter Mondale and Joan Mondale. He is a former Minnesota state senator and is currently the CEO of Nazca Solutions, Inc...
). However, in the general election for governor
Governor of Minnesota
The Governor of Minnesota is the chief executive of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Forty different people have been governors of the state, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory. Alexander Ramsey, the first territorial...
, both Humphrey and Republican candidate Norm Coleman
Norm Coleman
Norman Bertram Coleman, Jr. is an American attorney and politician. He was a United States senator from Minnesota from 2003 to 2009. Coleman was elected in 2002 and served in the 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses. Before becoming a senator, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, from 1994 to 2002...
lost to the third-party candidacy of Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura
James George Janos , better known as Jesse Ventura, is an American politician, the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003, Navy UDT veteran, former SEAL reservist, actor, and former radio and television talk show host...
in a tumultuous race
Minnesota gubernatorial election, 1998
The 1998 Minnesota gubernatorial election took place on November 3, 1998. Reform Party candidate Jesse Ventura defeated Republican Party challenger Norm Coleman and Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party challenger Hubert H. "Skip" Humphrey III...
.
Political legacy
Humphrey was an enthusiastic successor of his father's New DealNew Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
-inspired political philosophy, and throughout his career he remained devoted to traditional progressive
Progressivism in the United States
Progressivism in the United States is a broadly based reform movement that reached its height early in the 20th century and is generally considered to be middle class and reformist in nature. It arose as a response to the vast changes brought by modernization, such as the growth of large...
ideals as well as their more modern manifestations: "If you think that being too liberal means raising the minimum wage, advocating health care for everyone, protecting the environment, taking on the tobacco industry, enacting campaign finance reform, and putting more cops on the streets, then guess what? That's what Minnesotans want." One of his most passionately held principles was an implacable opposition to tobacco
Tobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...
and its powerful political lobby: in 1999, the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
awarded him the Director-General's Prize for outstanding global contribution to tobacco control.
Private life
While a student at American University, Humphrey met Nancy Lee Jeffery, the daughter of a US Navy captain. Much to their parents' surprise and delight, the two were married while summering in Europe in 1963. The Humphreys are the parents of three children, including Hubert H. "Buck" Humphrey IV.Humphrey is a senior fellow at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
where he teaches public health policy and law, and he is also a consultant to Tunheim Partners, a Minnesota-based communications and public affairs firm. Humphrey served as the president of the Minnesota chapter of the AARP, and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National AARP.
Electoral history
- 1998 election for Governor
- Jesse VenturaJesse VenturaJames George Janos , better known as Jesse Ventura, is an American politician, the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003, Navy UDT veteran, former SEAL reservist, actor, and former radio and television talk show host...
(Ref.), 37% - Norm ColemanNorm ColemanNorman Bertram Coleman, Jr. is an American attorney and politician. He was a United States senator from Minnesota from 2003 to 2009. Coleman was elected in 2002 and served in the 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses. Before becoming a senator, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, from 1994 to 2002...
(R), 34% - Hubert H. Humphrey III (DFL), 29%
- Jesse Ventura
- 1998 election for Governor – Democratic Primary
- Skip Humphrey (DFL), 37%
- Mike FreemanMichael O. FreemanMichael O. "Mike" Freeman is an attorney and politician from the state of Minnesota. He is currently the county attorney for Hennepin County, the most populous county in the state, of which the county seat is Minneapolis. He is the son of Orville Freeman, who was a former Minnesota governor and...
(DFL), 19% - Doug Johnson (DFL), 19%
- Mark DaytonMark DaytonMark Brandt Dayton is an American politician, the 40th and current Governor of the state of Minnesota. Dayton previously served as United States Senator from Minnesota from 2001 to 2007 in the 107th, 108th, and 109th Congresses...
(DFL), 18% - Ted MondaleTed MondaleTheodore A. "Ted" Mondale is a politician and entrepreneur. He is the elder son of the former senator, ambassador and Vice President Walter Mondale and Joan Mondale. He is a former Minnesota state senator and is currently the CEO of Nazca Solutions, Inc...
(DFL), 7%
- 1994 election for state Attorney General
- Hubert H. Humphrey III (DFL) (inc.), 1,115,285
- Sharon AndersonSharon Anderson-Biography:Sharon Scarrella Anderson is an American politician and a member of the Republican Party. She is a 1956 graduate of Saint Paul Central High School and also attended the University of Minnesota....
(IR), 488,753 - Dean W. Amundson (Grassroots Party), 69,776
- 1990 election for state Attorney General
- Hubert H. Humphrey III (DFL) (inc.), 1,126,447
- Kevin E. Johnson (IR), 655,282
- 1988 election for U.S. Senate
- David DurenbergerDavid DurenbergerDavid Ferdinand Durenberger is an American politician and a former Republican member of the U.S. Senate from Minnesota.- Early life :...
(R) (inc.), 56% - Hubert H. Humphrey III (DFL), 41%
- David Durenberger
- 1986 election for state Attorney General
- Hubert H. Humphrey III (DFL) (inc.), 985,569
- Lew Freeman (IR), 399,483
- Derrick P. Grimmer (Grassroots Party), 16,394
- 1982 election for state Attorney General
- Hubert H. Humphrey III (DFL), 61.72%
- Elliot Rothenberg (IR), 37.24%
- Samuel A. Faulk (Conservative People's Party), 1.04%
- 1980 election for State Senate (District 44)
- Hubert H. Humphrey III (DFL) (inc.), unopposed (19,579 votes, 100%)