State Senate Candidate Goes Into Labor While Delivering Speech

A woman who was running for the Minnesota state Senate was forced to drop out of the race when she had to leave her party’s convention to give birth.

Erin Maye Quade went into labor on Saturday morning as Minnesota‘s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party delegates gathered to choose their candidate for November.

“We weren’t sure she was going to make it,” Mitchell Walstad, Maye Quade’s campaign manager, said. Despite being in labor, she went on to the convention, greeting delegates and giving a speech.

Maye Quade left the floor whenever a contraction started. As candidate speeches began, she had to stop speaking when one came on while she was addressing the crowd.

She managed to answer about 10 inquiries during a question-and-answer period. “At one point, they had to switch up the order, I believe, because she was having a contraction in the middle of when she was supposed to answer,” Walstad said.

Walstad said Maye Quade reached her “breaking point” and the campaign approached Emmerich about suspending the convention and switching to a primary. According to Walstad, he did not agree, but Emmerich denied the request. 

“After the first ballot had been completed, I received word from a member of my campaign that the results showed me leading by 55-44 percent (1 percent abstaining),” Emmerich said in a statement Monday. “I was on my way to talk to my floor manager to verify this information when Erin pulled me aside.”

“She asked if I would be willing to suspend the convention and take the race to a primary since it appeared to be about even,” he added. “I responded by saying I hadn’t verified the count yet and would get back to her. She said that was fine. However, before I was able to speak with her again, she decided to suspend her campaign.”

Maye Quade withdrew from the race to go to the hospital, where she delivered her baby 12 hours later.