Amy Klobuchar: “I wish to speak this morning to honor the memory of Paul and Sheila Wellstone. Today, it is exactly 5 years ago that…”

“I wish to speak this morning to honor the memory of Paul and Sheila Wellstone. Today, it is exactly 5 years ago that they died in a plane crash outside Eveleth, MN, a beautiful area of our State called the Iron Range, where, in some ways, Paul Wellstone got his political start. Part of it was the farms of southern Minnesota, when he stood up for farmers when the farms were being foreclosed on. But part of it was the work he did with those iron ore miners. My grandfather was an iron ore miner who worked 1,500 feet underground in the mines of Ely, MN, about a half hour away from where Paul died. Paul Wellstone's daughter Marcia was also killed in the crash--his longtime staff members, Mary McEvoy, Tom Lapik, and Will McLaughlin, as well as the pilot and copilot of the plane. On this day, 5 years later, the people of Minnesota are remembering that crash and remembering Paul and Sheila. It is so hard to believe it has been 5 years since we have lost them. It feels both so long ago and not so long ago at all. Part of why it doesn't seem so long ago to me is because everywhere I go in this Capitol, people remind me of Paul.”