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David Durenberger (1934–2023), U.S. senator from Minnesota

by Linnea Crowther

David Durenberger was a Republican U.S. senator from Minnesota who served for 16 years.

Political career

After serving in the U.S. Army, Durenberger went to law school and worked as a lawyer for several years. His entry into politics came when he became the executive secretary to Minnesota Governor Harold LeVander in the 1960s and ‘70s. Durenberger was elected to the U.S. Senate in a 1978 special election upon the death of Senator Hubert Humphrey. A fiscal conservative who supported environmental protections and sponsored the Americans with Disabilities Act, Durenberger was reelected in 1982 and 1988. He chaired the Select Committee on Intelligence during the Iran-Contra scandal and served on the Pepper Commission, which attempted to reform health care.

During Durenberger’s third term, he was met with an ethics scandal as investigations found he was misusing travel expenses and ignoring limit on speaking fees. He had to repay more than $100,000, and the Senate voted to censure him in 1990, the most recent senator to be censured. Though Durenberger was not removed from the Senate, he finished his final term under the cloud of the scandal and did not run for reelection. Later, he was indicted on felony charges of conspiring to make false claims in the Senate; he served a year of probation. After leaving the Senate, Durenberger taught health care policy at the Minneapolis-area University of St. Thomas.

Tributes to David Durenberger

Full obituary: Pioneer Press

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