[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 195 (Tuesday, December 11, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7424-S7425]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO JOE DONNELLY

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I want to join my colleagues in thanking 
our friend, Senator Joe Donnelly, for his service to his State and our 
Nation.
  When he was about 30 years old, while he was practicing law in South 
Bend, Joe Donnelly sought the Democratic nomination for attorney 
general in Indiana. Two years later, he ran for State senate. Both 
times, he lost.
  Then he did something truly astonishing: He walked away from 
politics. For 10 years, he practiced law and ran a small stamp-and-ink 
business.
  In 2003, local party officials asked him to run for Congress. They 
didn't expect him to win--just be a respectable sacrificial lamb.
  He came closer to winning than anyone but he expected.
  Two years later, he was elected, in a rematch, to the U.S. House.
  As someone who also ran and lost three times before winning an 
election, I feel a natural camaraderie with my friend from Indiana.
  I think I may also have some insight into why he was willing to try 
one more time.
  You see, Joe Donnelly grew up in New York. He moved to South Bend for 
college, and he is a Hoosier, through-and-through, but he is also a 
member of the great White Sox Nation.
  In 2005, the Chicago White Sox won the World Series for the first 
time in 88 years--proof, some would say, that anything is possible if 
you persevere and work hard.
  The next year, it was Joe Donnelly's turn to score the upset victory 
by winning election to Congress from a red district in a deep-red 
State.
  In his 6 years in the House, he voted to create the Affordable Care 
Act.
  During the financial crisis of 2009, he voted for the American 
Recovery Act, to stop America's slide into a second great depression 
that could have brought down the entire global economy.
  When free market hardliners said, ``Save Wall Street but let the 
American auto industry die,'' Barack Obama said no--and so did Joe.
  In November 2012, Hoosier voters sent Joe Donnelly to the U.S. 
Senate, the first Democrat to hold his seat since 1977.
  In a political era that often seems often to reward snark over 
substance, Joe Donnelly is a soft-spoken throwback to an earlier era, 
when working across the aisle was viewed as a talent, not as treason.
  Joe is decent, honest, and direct. You may disagree with him on an 
issue, but you will never doubt his motives.
  His values are classic Hoosier: hard work, common sense, bipartisan 
compromise, and a disdain for grandstanding.
  As a Senator, he has done what he believes is needed to level the 
playing field for ``regular Joes,'' for farmers and factory workers 
and, as he says, ``the people who go to work in the dark and come home 
in the dark.''
  I particularly want to thank him for his work to improve mental 
health care for military members and veterans. That work will save 
lives and families.
  Like all nations, the White Sox Nation has some laws. One of my 
favorites is: ``Respect the past . . . people that are shoeless . . . 
and anyone named Joe.''

[[Page S7425]]

  That last edict is a reference to one of the legends of White Sox 
history, Shoeless Joe Jackson, but it applies equally to our friend and 
colleague, Senator Joe Donnelly, who has served his State and our 
Nation well and earned our great respect.

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