Jim Ramstad, congressman who championed mental health and recovery issues, dies at 74
Jim Ramstad, a moderate Republican congressman from Minnesota whose battle with alcoholism led him to become a champion of mental health and recovery issues, died Nov. 5 at his home in Wayzata, Minn. He was 74.
The cause was Parkinson’s disease, said his former chief of staff, Dean Peterson.
Mr. Ramstad served nine terms in the U.S. House before retiring in 2009. He represented Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes several Minneapolis suburbs. He also served for nearly a decade in the Minnesota Senate before his congressional victory in 1990.
On Capitol Hill, Mr. Ramstad’s accomplishments included expanding access to mental health treatment at a time when insurers could assign higher co-payments or limit coverage for mental health benefits.
In 2008, he was a chief Republican sponsor of legislation that added significant protections in health coverage for those suffering from mental illness or chemical addiction — benefits on par with what health plans would provide for physical ailments. The act was named for the late senator Paul Wellstone, a Minnesota Democrat who was also passionate about mental health equity.
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Shortly before his death, Mr. Ramstad celebrated his 39th year of sobriety. He spoke openly on how he hit his low point. In 1981, he awoke from a blackout in a South Dakota jail cell after his arrest for a drunken disturbance at a Sioux Falls hotel coffee shop while he was a state senator. That shock started him on the road to recovery.
Share this articleShare“If I had not wound up in that jail cell, I would not have sought treatment. I probably would be dead today,” he told the New York Times in 2006, for a story about how he became an Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor for Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.).
James Marvin Ramstad, whose father became president and chief executive of a car dealership, was born in Jamestown, N.D., on May 6, 1946. He was a 1968 graduate of the University of Minnesota and a 1973 graduate of George Washington University law school. He was in the Army Reserve from 1968 to 1974, then worked as a lawyer in Washington.
In 2005, he married Kathryn Mitchell. In addition to his wife, survivors include a daughter.
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