Minnesota State Senate Candidate Who Gave Convention Speech While in Labor Wins Democratic Primary

Amethyst Tate
·3 min read
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Erin Maye Quade, advocacy director for Gender Justice, speaks at a news conference at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota,, against a bill that's part of the Senate Republican "Parents Bill of Rights." Maye Quade and other opponents say they fear the legislation could force teachers to out LGBTQ students to their parents, exclude transgender students from sports and remove consequences for bullying and harassment Minnesota Senate Education, Minneapolis, United States - 03 Mar 2022

Steve Karnowski/AP/Shutterstock Erin Maye Quade

Minnesota candidate Erin Maye Quade is celebrating a big win in her Minnesota state Senate primary, several months after making headlines in April for giving her convention speech while in labor.

The 36-year-old tweeted her excitement on Tuesday after beating her opponent, Justin Emmerich, writing, "We did it!! Tonight's victory is the result of hundreds of hours of work and thousands of voters who are fired up about our vision for Minnesota. I am so excited to fight for our values in November. We are fighting for a world where everyone can thrive. SD56: Thank you!"

"This has been a campaign of our community and I am not doing this alone," Maye Quade said at her election party from an event center in Rosemount, reported Sahan Journal.

If Maye Quade goes on to win the general election in November, she would become the first Black woman elected to the Minnesota Senate. There are four other Black women running for seats in the state Senate with whom she could share the legacy.

RELATED: A Minnesota Candidate Gave a Convention Speech While in Labor

Back in April, Maye Quade was forced to withdraw from her party's nominating process, her campaign said, after she gave a speech at the convention while in labor — and then rushed to the hospital to give birth.

Maye Quade, who was hoping to earn the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's endorsement, began having contractions hours before the convention, her campaign manager, Mitchell Walstad, told HuffPost.

After her team convinced the convention organizers to push the endorsement up a few hours, she was at the event.

"We went into the day not sure if she was even going to make it to the convention," Walstad told HuffPost in a story published that Monday, adding that Maye Quade met with delegates in between having contractions.

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"We had a little personal campaign room. So she'd go in there to have her contractions. And then she was like, 'Great, I have 15 or 20 minutes until my next contraction happens. So I'll go out and talk to delegates during this time trying to push through it,'" Walstad said.

Viral footage of the speech shared to Twitter shows Maye Quade leaning over to have contractions amid her remarks and saying "excuse me" while the audience cheered her on.

But as her contractions continued, Maye Quade was forced to withdraw from the race in order to head to the hospital. Emmerich then received the party's endorsement, running unopposed. Maye Quade reentered the Senate race in May, ultimately defeating the party's endorsee on Tuesday.

Maye Quade, who served in the Minnesota state House of Representatives from 2017 to 2019, delivered her child — a girl named Harriet — nearly 24 hours after her contractions began.

Harriet joins Maye Quade and her wife, Alyse, and their two rescue dogs, according to her campaign website.