35 years ago today Paul Wellstone climbed onto the Green Bus and headed to Washington to begin his first term [View all]

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https://www.facebook.com/Commish.Joe.Atkins/posts/pfbid0WPayDCEkP4s4J4DhjzzuUnUa1QnQ2pYERwWrK7Xebo5h4ZwuWYFpohDjTGbcem9Yl

This is the text from (Dakota County Commissioner) Joe Atkins Facebook post:

35 YEARS AGO TODAY. On December 28, 1990, the now-famous Wellstone Bus pulled away from the Croatian Hall in South St. Paul, beginning its journey to Washington, D.C.

Just weeks earlier, Paul Wellstone had pulled off one of the biggest political upsets in Minnesota history, defeating incumbent U.S. Senator Rudy Boschwitz in the November 1990 election. The green school bus — used throughout the campaign to crisscross Minnesota — became a symbol of grassroots politics, small-donor fundraising, and the idea that you could win by meeting people where they lived, not just where the money was.

Launching that post-election trip from South St. Paul was fitting. The Croatian Hall had long been a gathering place for working-class families — exactly the people who powered Wellstone’s improbable victory.

That bus didn’t just carry a newly elected senator to Washington. It carried a reminder that politics can be personal, populist, and rooted in real community — a lesson elected officials from both parties, Democrats and Republicans alike, would do well to revisit 35 years later.