Dave Durenberger
Regrettably, Dave Durenberger is no longer with us as he died in January 2023. He belonged to a Republican tradition that has all but disappeared from American politics – a tradition combining fiscal responsibility with social conscience, respect for democratic institutions, and a belief that government should improve people’s lives.
Born in St. Cloud in 1934, Durenberger attended Saint John’s University and earned his law degree from the University of Minnesota. After serving in the Army Reserve, practicing law, and working for Governor Harold LeVander, he was elected to the United States Senate in 1978. Minnesotans returned him to office twice, and he served until 1995.
Durenberger approached politics as a high calling. He believed compromise was not weakness, but an indispensable means by which people with competing interests could solve common problems. During sixteen years in the Senate, he became a national leader on health care, Medicare, environmental protection, gender equity, and disability rights. His work helped advance the Americans with Disabilities Act, transforming the lives of millions of Americans.
His concern for the environment was his motive for co-authoring, with Rep. Bruce Vento, the Mississippi National River and Recreational Area (MNRRA) Act, which passed in 1988. The Act protects a 72-mile corridor of the rivers that travel across the Twin Cities.
As the Republican Party abandoned its progressive roots and became increasingly hostile to the institutions of government itself, it worked to dismantle rather than improve performance, Durenberger refused to follow. He left the party in 2005. In 2016, he supported Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump; four years later, he supported Joe Biden. His 2018 book, When Republicans Were Progressive, mourned the disappearance of a political tradition that valued bipartisanship, competence, and responsibility toward the vulnerable.
Durenberger defended democracy by practicing the virtues upon which it depends: independence, humility, compromise, accountability, and respect for truth. Democracy does not require perfection. It requires people capable of acknowledging failure, accepting consequences, learning from their mistakes, and returning to the work of serving others.
At a time when too many political leaders place personal loyalty above country and treat accountability as persecution, Dave Durenberger offered a better example.
“I think there were two things that led to what we have. There are some people who voted for Republicans because they just couldn’t vote for a Democrat. The way many see it is that the Democrats had just gone too far. And I guess some people see Trump as an agent for change. I see him more as an accident of time. Once we were a party of ideology. Now it seems the party is personality driven.”
SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – NOVEMBER 2022