Hubert Horatio "Skip" Humphrey III (born June 26, 1942) is an American retired politician who served as

attorney general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

of the state of

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

(1983–1999) and

State Senator A state senator is a member of a State legislature (United States), state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. History There are typically fewer state senators than there ...

(1973–1983). Humphrey led the Office of Older Americans as the assistant director at the

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector. CFPB's jurisdiction includes banks, credit unions, securities firms, Payday lo ...

(CFPB). A Democrat, Humphrey is a son of

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

Hubert Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American politician who served from 1965 to 1969 as the 38th vice president of the United States. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Minnesota from 19 ...

and U.S. Senator Muriel Humphrey. He was the Democratic nominee for governor in the hotly contested three-way election of 1998.

Early life

Hubert Horatio Humphrey III was born on June 26, 1942, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Humphrey graduated from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

, where he was a member of

Alpha Sigma Phi Alpha Sigma Phi (), commonly known as Alpha Sig, is an intercollegiate men's social Fraternities and sororities, fraternity. Founded in 1845 at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, it is the tenth oldest social fraternity in the United Sta ...

, Beta Chi chapter, and is a graduate of the

University of Minnesota Law School The University of Minnesota Law School is the law school of the University of Minnesota, a public university in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school confers four law degrees: a Juris Doctor (J.D.), a Master of Laws (LL.M.), a Master of Science in Pa ...

.Minnesota Legislative Reference Library
Minnesota Legislators Past & Present – Legislator Record
(Retrieved August 15, 2010).

Political career

Humphrey was elected to the

Minnesota Senate The Minnesota Senate is the upper house of the Minnesota Legislature, Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. At 67 members, half as many as the Minnesota House of Representatives, it is the largest upper house of any State legislature (Unite ...

in 1972 and served as a state senator from 1973 to 1983. He was elected

Minnesota Attorney General The attorney general of Minnesota is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Thirty individuals have held the office of Attorney General since statehood. The incumbent is Keith Ellison, a Democratic-Farme ...

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. On January 13, 1978, his father died of bladder cancer at the age of 66. In 1988, he ran for the same U.S. Senate seat that his father and his mother previously held, but was defeated by incumbent Independent-Republican Senator David Durenberger. After this loss he served as president of the

National Association of Attorneys General The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of state and territory attorneys general in the United States which therefore means that the United States Attorney General in the federal government is n ...

, and in 1996 he was state chair of President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

's reelection campaign. By 1998, he was again encouraged to run for higher office, and entered the DFL gubernatorial primary, winning handily in a crowded field (which included another scion of an eminent Minnesota political family, Ted Mondale). In the general election, both Humphrey and Republican candidate

Norm Coleman Norman Bertram Coleman Jr. (born August 17, 1949) is an American politician, attorney, and lobbyist. From 2003 to 2009, he served as a United States Senate, United States Senator for Minnesota. From 1994 to 2002, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Mi ...

lost to the third-party candidacy of

Jesse Ventura Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos; July 15, 1951) is an American politician, political commentator, actor, media personality, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), he ...

in a tumultuous race. On September 20, his mother died at the age of 86.

Political legacy

Humphrey was an enthusiastic successor of his father's

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

-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 his opposition to

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

and its powerful political lobby: in 1999, the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

awarded him the Director-General's Prize for outstanding global contribution to tobacco control.

Personal life

While a student at American University, Humphrey met Nancy Lee Jeffery, the daughter of a U.S. Navy captain. The two were married while spending the summer of 1963 in Europe. The Humphreys are the parents of three children, including Hubert H. "Buck" Humphrey IV, who ran for Minnesota Secretary of State in 2002, losing by three percentage points to Republican nominee Mary Kiffmeyer. Humphrey was a senior fellow at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

, where he taught public health policy and law, and was also Senior Vice President at Tunheim Partners, a Minnesota-based communications and public affairs firm. Beginning in 2004, Humphrey served as the president of the Minnesota chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), and later was a member of the Board of Directors of the National AARP. In October 2011, Humphrey was appointed the assistant director of the Office of Older Americans at the

Electoral history

1972

1976

1980

1982

1986

1988

1990

1994

1998

References

External links

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Humphrey, Skip 1942 births American people of English descent American people of Norwegian descent American United Methodists American University alumni Children of vice presidents of the United States Living people Minnesota attorneys general Democratic Party Minnesota state senators University of Minnesota Law School alumni Humphrey family People of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Candidates in the 1988 United States elections Candidates in the 1998 United States elections 20th-century members of the Minnesota Legislature