Former US vice president Walter Mondale dies at 93

(REUTERS): Former Vice-President of United States, Walter Mondale has died in Minneapolis on Monday night aged 93, his family has announced.

“It is with profound sadness that we share the news that our beloved dad passed away today in Minneapolis, Minnesota,” the family said in a statement. Mondale was Jimmy Carter’s running mate for his winning 1976 presidential bid and defeat four years later.

Mondale, the first major US party presidential nominee to pick a woman running mate, believed in an activist government and worked for civil rights, school integration, consumer protection and farm and labor interests as a U.S. senator from 1977 to 1981.

He also served as U.S. ambassador to Japan from 1993 to 1996 under Bill Clinton. Mondale suffered one of the worst defeats ever in a US presidential election, losing in 49 of the 50 states and carrying only his native Minnesota as well as Washington, D.C.

Mondale served in the Senate from 1964 until he was elected as vice president in Carter’s 1976 victory over incumbent Republican Gerald Ford, who had become president after Nixon resigned in 1974 due to the Watergate corruption scandal.

Mondale became a more engaged vice president than many who preceded him. He played a key role in buttressing the sometimes frayed relationship between Carter’s White House and the Democratic-controlled Congress.