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Pregnant Minnesota Candidate Forced To Give Speech While In Active Labor, Sparking Backlash
A Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate for Minnesota state Senate was forced to give remarks at the state's nominating convention while in active labor and many Minnesotans are outraged the convention was not postponed instead.
Erin Maye Quade, a former Minnesota state representative, was ready to go out Saturday and win the endorsement of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, the Minnesota moniker for their state's Democratic Party.
But then, early that morning, she went into labor.
And when it seemed as though officials were not willing to change the date of the convention, Quade soldiered on and gave her speech anyway while fighting through contractions, only to be forced to withdraw later to go to the hospital.
See her speech below.
Many are outraged Quade was put in such a position.
Quade's campaign manager Mitchell Walstad claims that their request for more time was met with "pushback," and so they assumed a request to change the dates would be denied.
He told HuffPost:
"[W]e didn’t feel as if there was any latitude to ask for any suspension of the endorsement, even though we would’ve preferred to do it at a different date."
He also described the process by which Quade was able to appear at all—by going into a designated room to breathe through her contractions, then re-join the nomination proceedings.
When it became clear that Quade would not be able to stay for the duration of the nomination process, Walstad says she requested that her opponent Justin Emmerich agree to suspend the rest of the nomination and move to a primary instead. They say he refused, sparking outrage among many of Quade's supporters.
But Emmerich has a different version of events. He says he told Quade he wanted to wait a bit longer to see how the voting results shaped up and would get back to her, but she suspended her campaign and left for the hospital before he could do so.
Minnesota DFL party officials shared Emmerich's version of events, adding that suspension of the nomination requires a formal request that Quade never initiated.
Walstad and many of Quade's supporters believe, however, that if it had been a different sort of medical emergency like a heart attack, the proceedings would have been halted immediately on principle with or without a formal request.
Emma McBride, a campaign surrogate and friend of Quade's wife, shared this sentiment.
She told HuffPost:
“I think that they would’ve stopped this convention for any other medical emergency, but instead they put a Black woman through immense pain and put her in front of the room during one of her most vulnerable moments in life ― in front of a room of 200 people."
In the end, Emmerich ran unopposed after Quade left for the hospital and, obviously, won.
On Twitter, many people found Quade's situation infuriating.
Today in Minnesota, @ErinMayeQuade gave a convention speech while in active labor. And her opponent didn\u2019t think to ask to postpone the convention as she, you know, had to go to the hospital to deliver her baby. What the hell.pic.twitter.com/Wmu5fh40I6— ashley fairbanks (@ashley fairbanks) 1650763091
Sending love, congratulations, and rest to @ErinMayeQuade \n\nThis convention is just one example of the work ahead to make this process as inclusive and as accessible as possible to women, particularly women of color.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/erin-maye-quade-labor-minnesota_n_62660a64e4b0197ae3f7b793\u00a0\u2026— Women Winning (@Women Winning) 1650905429
It is a fundamental violation of DFL values that the endorsement process required @ErinMayeQuade to participate in a convention while in active labor. Her opponent would not agree to postpone the process. He was ultimately endorsed. This is our loss.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/erin-maye-quade-labor-minnesota_n_62660a64e4b0197ae3f7b793/amp\u00a0\u2026— Megan Walsh (@Megan Walsh) 1650898278
This is awful. The convention should have been stopped. There's no justification for not stopping it. \n\n@ErinMayeQuade - running for MN state Senate, delivered her convention nominating speech on Saturday -- while in labor. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/erin-maye-quade-labor-minnesota_n_62660a64e4b0197ae3f7b793?utm_campaign=share_twitter&ncid=engmodushpmg00000004\u00a0\u2026 via @HuffPostPol— Larry Kraft (@Larry Kraft) 1650907785
I have seen a lot of justifications for the decision to just keep right on running the convention and endorsing when Erin Maye Quade had to go to the hospital to deliver a baby and wow is it ever a vivid example of the structural ways in which women are shoved out of politics.https://twitter.com/ziibiing/status/1518036549606293505\u00a0\u2026— Naomi Kritzer \ud83e\udd95\ud83e\udd96 (@Naomi Kritzer \ud83e\udd95\ud83e\udd96) 1650764819
OUTRAGED. The DFL failed Erin Maye Quade @ErinMayeQuade -- a progressive Black woman in labor, by making her beg her opponent to do the right thing. \n\nShe had to choose A. give birth or B. stay in the race. Was that an actual choice?https://twitter.com/thequeengeek/status/1518431719535300611\u00a0\u2026— Salt Forest (@Salt Forest) 1650901241
And many excoriated Emmerich for celebrating his win.
This is quite possible the the tackiest and most tasteless #SoreWinner tweet I have ever seen a campaign make. This post should @JustinWEmmerich ashamed. Zero concern that @ErinMayeQuade was literally hospitalized during the convention or thoughts for her or her family.— Deep in the suburbs of Dallas (@Deep in the suburbs of Dallas) 1650910284
gross. another politician i appreciated in the past and can no longer respect. STOP CONGRATULATING A FAKE WIN!!! his opponent, Erin Maye Quade, was literally BIRTHING A CHILD and he refused to agree to stop the convention. this is sick.https://twitter.com/epmurphymn/status/1518282141506936837\u00a0\u2026— anissa (@anissa) 1650904648
This is a clown post. \n\nThis man "won" because his opponent, WAS IN LABOR and had to leave the convention to go to the literal hospital. \n\nAnyway, Erin Maye Quade is pretty coolhttps://twitter.com/JustinWEmmerich/status/1517929239206633474\u00a0\u2026— Ben \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f (@Ben \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f) 1650818508
Seriously?! This does not deserve congratulations. Emmerich\u2019s actions yesterday and unwillingness to postpone with Erin Maye Quade in labor demonstrate his lack of fitness for office.— K (@K) 1650828420
Quade is just the third Black woman in Minnesota's history to serve in its state house, and was the first openly LGBTQ candidate to win her party's endorsement when she ran for lieutenant governor in 2018. Had she won this year's race, she would have been the first Black woman in Minnesota's state Senate.