President Jimmy Carter had several Minnesotans in his cabinet and Walter “Fritz” Mondale, as his vice president, would help redefine that office.

Mondale, was similar in background and in his commitment to civil rights to Carter, said Larry Jacobs, a professor of politics at the University of Minnesota who taught with the vice president for 16 years.

President Jimmy Carter, right, embraces Vice President Walter Mondale, joined by Rosalynn Carter, left, and Joan Mondale Jan. 21, 1977, following Carter’s inauguration in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Peter Bregg)

The Carter-Mondale partnership changed how presidents and vice-presidents worked together, Jacobs said. The two men created what went on to become the modern vice-presidency, giving the office a central role in the White House, he said.

Carter would have agreed with that assessment.

“I think I can say without anyone disputing this that there has never been in the history of the United States a closer and more valuable partnership between the president of our country and the vice president of our country, than between Jimmy Carter and Fritz Mondale. And I’m thankful for that,” Carter said in 1978 during a stop in Rochester, Minn.

As the 39th president, Carter appointed several Minnesotans to his administration besides Mondale, including Bob Bergland, of Roseau, who served as U.S. secretary of agriculture.

“From today’s point of view, we think of the state of Minnesota as solidly Democratic when it comes to presidential elections. But if you go back to 1976, that really wasn’t the case. In 1972 Richard Nixon had actually won Minnesota, so having Walter Mondale on the ticket may well have played a role in helping secure the state for Jimmy Carter,” Jacobs said.

Human rights impact

One of Carter’s biggest impacts on Minnesota was his foreign policy, which included a defining theme of human rights, Jacobs said. That would play an important role in Hmong refugees coming to the U.S., he said.

“It’s one of the largest ethnic groups in the state, and it’s solely because of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. They’re the ones who kind of stepped in, saw a human rights tragedy, and made the decision that the right thing to do was to send the Navy, not to fire guns, but to save people’s lives,” Jacobs said. “Think how incredible that is — using the Navy to save lives? This was Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale’s idea of human rights and the proper nature of U.S. foreign policy.”

Following the end of his presidency in 1981, Carter and his wife Rosalynn focused on humanitarian work through The Carter Center and worked with Georgia-based Habitat for Humanity for more than 40 years.

Habitat for Humanity

Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity hosted the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project in 2010 and the fall of 2024, which celebrated Carter’s 100th birthday.

Thousands of volunteers built 30 homes at The Heights on St. Paul’s Greater East Side, with nearly 150 homes expected to be developed. Chris Coleman, president and CEO for Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity and former St. Paul mayor, said it will be the largest investment on the East Side in more than a century.

Coleman, who worked alongside Carter in 2010, said the Carters were instrumental in expanding the organization’s reach.

“When he put his tool belt on, he was there to work,” Coleman said. “And it wasn’t about him, it was about the service to others. And I hope that as we reflect upon his legacy and the legacy of Rosalynn Carter that we remember that public service should be about serving the public, not yourself,” Coleman said.

During the 2010 visit the former president helped build or rehab a dozen homes in a corner of North Minneapolis hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis at the time.

Carter called the effort “God’s work” and said he handed each new homeowner a Bible. “There’s an inclination with people who are successful to say, ‘Well, if they had worked as hard as I had, they’d have their own home,” he told reporters at the time.

But good, hardworking people struggle to get on their feet, too, he said. “There’s another element of Habitat that’s kind of an equalizer,” Carter said. “It makes us realize … we’re the same people.”

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