‘Spirited advocate for the people’: Minnesota DFLer Rick Nolan dies at 80

This story was first published by Iron Range Today.

Rick Nolan, a DFLer who represented Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District and was among the Iron Range’s strongest voices in Washington, D.C., has died at age 80.

“Rick Nolan was a champion for the Northland who fought fiercely to protect working people from corporate interests,” wrote Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin on Friday. “From Ely to Duluth, he was an ambassador for the DFL creed that ‘we all do better when we all do better.’ Our thoughts are with his family and all who came to know and love this dedicated public servant.”

A cause of death was not released.

Nolan was known as a spirited advocate for people, but was just as often found engaged in the middle of a storytelling adventure that mixed in tales from his life and personal relationships across the political landscapes, always with the distinct laughter known to those around him.

He started his political career in the Minnesota House in 1969 and was elected to the U.S. House from the 6th Congressional District in 1974. He briefly left politics in 1980 to work for the U.S. Export Corporation. DFL Gov. Rudy Perpich later appointed him president of the Minnesota World Trade Center in St. Paul.

The Brainerd native returned to politics in 2012, defeating Republican incumbent Rep. Chip Cravaack to represent the northern Minnesota’s 8th District in the U.S. House. Nolan held the seat until 2018, when he joined former state Attorney General Lori Swanson’s unsuccessful gubernatorial run as a lieutenant governor candidate.

As Nolan’s political career wound to an end, he publicly embraced battles closer to home. He revealed his daughter, Katherine Bensen, was battling incurable lung cancer in 2015. The father-daughter duo often discussed and shared the journey through her death in 2020.

Nolan cited his own health reasons for retiring from politics after the run, but remained active supporting DFL candidates and the region when he wasn’t traveling with his wife, Mary, or tapping maple trees at their home.

Just last week, he attended a door-knocking campaign in Chisholm for Lorrie Janatopoulos, the DFL candidate for Minnesota House District 7B.

“I admired his work and appreciated his maverick and independent record in Congress,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “I was humbled and honored to have the friendship of this true public servant who did so much for our area.”

Nolan represented a throwback politician of sorts, often bucking his own party and crossing party lines, as he passionately fought for the Iron Range and mining jobs during his time in Congress.

He cultivated Republican support in 2017 for his bill that finalized a federal land exchange for the then-PolyMet copper-nickel project. When nearly every taconite mine idled on the Range in 2015 due to steel dumping, Nolan rallied the Obama administration to visit the area and enact tariffs that reopened the industry in 2016.

When inter-party division widened over copper-nickel mining, he asked the Trump administration to reverse a federal land withdrawal that impacted progress at Twin Metals Minnesota, and often clashed with U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, a Twin Cities metro area DFLer, on the issue.

“With his thunderous voice and passion for the people of Northern Minnesota, Rick was a one-of-a-kind leader,” said U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., calling him “the comeback kid” in a statement. “He put his power into representing the people who needed him.”

As those divisions grew, Nolan was among the Range area Democrats fighting to retain their seats amid shifting political allegiances. He defeated Republican challenger Stewart Mills in 2014, and in 2016, beat Mills a second time by less than a half-percentage point.

That year, Nolan and now-Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz narrowly defended their U.S. House seats as Republican Donald Trump won their districts by double-digit margins.

“Rick Nolan was a giant in Northern Minnesota and in Congress, a tireless advocate for working people, and his speeches could blow the lid off the roof,” Walz said through a statement. “It was an honor to serve Minnesotans alongside him.”

Nolan’s congressional campaigns were honed in the grassroots efforts synonymous with the DFL. He preferred to travel with his wife, flanked by longtime staffers Jeff Anderson and Jordan Metsa, on an older model campaign tour bus named the “Working Class Express.”

While mining issues defined much of his work on the Range, Nolan delivered funding for the Soo Locks between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes, and was a fierce advocate against privatizing social security and Medicare.

“No one fought harder for the place they loved than him,” wrote DFL State Sen. Grant Hauschild, on X. “His eternal optimism was contagious & he always spent his capital on uplifting future leaders. Northern Minnesota will miss our Champion, as he joins the other political titans from our region, in heaven.”

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