Credit: Star Tribune

I was born and raised in Minnesota and like many children in America, I grew up sheltered from the realities of warfare. Long separated from the reality that something could go truly and utterly wrong in an instant, my cocoon shattered at my breakfast table on September 11, 2001. Staring up at the tiny TV screen perched above our landline phone I listened to my mother desperately try to get a hold of my sister who was living in New York.

After 9/11 I knew things could go wrong. Just over a year later, on October 25th, 2002 I knew they might never be right again.

I can’t say that at eleven years old I understood Paul Wellstone’s politics. The green “Wellstone!” sticker or yard sign was an omnipresent totem in my childhood. At the State Fair delighted declarations of, “I got to talk to Paul!” abounded (as if he belonged to the same echelon as Cher, Madonna, and other one-named celebrities). In my naivete all I knew was that Paul represented us, and that he was an adult with kind eyes.

What I came to understand later is that Paul Wellstone was one of the rare politicians to represent the very best of his state. Paul represented the Minnesota that believes in the intrinsic dignity of each and every person. The Minnesota where we work hard, not for the result, but for the joy of the labor. The Minnesota where we fight just as hard for each other as we fight for ourselves, because gosh darn it it’s the right thing to do.

On the stump, his five foot five frame would alight with energy, seeming as though he could tear through the lectern to attack whatever corporate interest or corruption threatened his charges. And his charges were numerous: Paul fought for the unions, farmers, immigrant communities, veterans, the environment, the poor, the uninsured, the mentally ill, the disenfranchised, anyone who was left behind or unheard or unnoticed. Paul saw you, he heard you, and he was on your side.

Paul Wellstone on the stump was a sight to behold.

But Paul was no stranger to taking political risks in the name of justice. In 1996, Paul voted against President Clinton’s welfare reform act — the only Senator up for re-election to do so — correctly predicting that the law would disproportionately hurt low income children. He was one of only eight Senators to vote against the repeal of Glass-Steagel in 1999. He regularly forced his colleagues to go on record for votes to increase their own pay. Then, on October 11th, 2002, Paul voted against the congressional authorization for war in Iraq. A move that both greatly slimmed his chances of reelection and put him in the crosshairs of Karl Rove and the Bush administration.

Paul Wellstone made those choices because he understood that, in his words, “If we don’t fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don’t really stand for them.” Paul stood for things. Paul stood for us. He won his first election in an upset, greatly in part because he showed up for long ignored communities and because of his ability to motivate and organize people who are usually absent from our political process.

In 2020, all of our fates are inextricably tied together. From the middle class to the most destitute, we are in the same boat and we will rise and fall together. It is my personal opinion there is only one candidate in the field who can attest to the moral clarity of Paul Wellstone. Someone who can motivate people left out of the U.S. political system, who is running to do the right thing not because it is easy, but because it is right, and that person is Bernie Sanders.

In 1990, Paul would end each speech with the line, “This time, vote for what you believe in”. Minnesota: in 2020, what do you believe in?

If you can’t say, I ask you to think back to the bumper sticker that bedazzled oh-so-many bumpers in the early aughts:

“W.W.W.D?”