Rick Nolan, who represented two Minnesota congressional districts three decades apart, dies at 80

MINNEAPOLIS — Former Rep. Rick Nolan, a Democrat who represented different Minnesota congressional districts during two separate stints in office three decades apart, died Friday, his wife said. He was 80.

Mary Nolan said her husband suffered from heart issues and died at their home in Nisswa. Paramedics were unable to revive him. He had been active until the end and was out campaigning for Democratic candidates on the Iron Range just last week, she said, noting that he spent the past two days mowing paths on their land in preparation for deer hunting season.

“His passion for justice was never-ending up until the very last,” she said.

Rick Nolan was making his second run for Congress when he was elected in 1974 to represent the 6th District, which in those days stretched from east-central Minnesota to the southwestern corner of the state. He served three terms but didn't run for reelection in 1980, a year when he broke with many Democrats and backed Sen. Ted Kennedy instead of supporting President Jimmy Carter's reelection bid.

Nolan returned to electoral politics three decades later when he unseated Republican Rep. Chip Cravaack in 2012 in the 8th District, which stretches from the Canadian border down to the northern fringes of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. He won three close races, eking out a victory in 2016 even as Donald Trump carried the district by more than 15 percentage points. When he announced his retirement in 2018, he said, "Now is the time for me to pass the baton to the next generation.”

But Nolan wasn't done with politics. He was Attorney General Lori Swanson's running mate in her unsuccessful race for governor that year. They lost the Democratic primary to current Gov. Tim Walz, who tweeted Wednesday that Nolan's “speeches could blow the lid off the roof.”

Other Democrats also weighed in with tributes.

"With his thunderous voice and passion for the people, Rick was a one-of-a-kind leader,” U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said. “He was the comeback kid. He went from being one of the youngest members of Congress to being one of the oldest freshmen when he was sworn in again at 69. He was the consummate outdoorsman, friend of labor, and he never forgot where he came from."

Ken Martin, the state chair of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, the official name of the Democratic Party in Minnesota, called Nolan "a champion for the Northland who fought fiercely to protect working people from corporate interests. From Ely to Duluth, he was an ambassador for the DFL creed that ‘we all do better when we all do better.’”

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, the dean of the state’s congressional delegation, called Nolan "a committed public servant who loved the Northland, he was a true Minnesotan — one need look no further than his hot dish competition, where he’d share sap that he harvested, venison that he hunted, and wild rice that he gathered with his own hands.”

Funeral arrangements are pending.