MN Senate Candidate Erin Maye Quade Spoke At Convention While In Labor, Having Contractions

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- A Minnesota State Senate candidate was in labor while giving a speech at a convention to secure her party's nomination and had to leave early to give birth.

Erin Maye Quade went into labor at about 2 a.m. on Saturday, the morning of Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party convention. She still showed up in labor and gave her speech, her campaign manager Mitchell Walstad told CBS News.

Video taken at the convention shows her holding her stomach and pausing, apparently having a contraction, after finishing a sentence of her speech.

Maye Quade needed to win the endorsement of the party — the state equivalent of the Democratic Party — at its convention to officially become its nominee.

At the convention, there are multiple rounds of voting, where delegates who sign up to attend the convention choose a nominee. When a candidate reaches 60% of the votes, they receive the party's endorsement, Walstad said.

"After the first round of balloting, Erin was at the point where she could not stay anymore, and she chose to withdraw," he said. "She was not forced out, but she chose to [leave] because with endorsing process, there's often a lot of change that can happen between one ballot and the next, and a lot of persuasion can happen if there's no decided candidate after that first round."

Quade asked her opponent, Justin Emmerich, if he would suspend balloting and go to a primary after the first ballots were cast, Walstad told CBS News. Walstad said that Emmerich never responded to the campaign.

When she left, delegates could vote for her, Emmerich or the "no endorsement" option. Emmerich won the nomination with 71% of the votes.

In a statement to CBS News, Emmerich said he, Maye Quade and Senate district leadership met to discuss accommodations when Quade was in labor and he "readily agreed to all of them, as did the convention delegates by unanimous consent." He said the accommodations were "mostly schedule-related."

"Had there been a formal request from Erin or any of the delegates to suspend the convention in order to hold it at a later date I would have agreed, however no such request or motion was made," he said.

Emmerich said after the first ballot, a member of his campaign told him he was leading with 55% of the vote. Maye Quade, at that point, had received 44% and 1% had abstained, according to Emmerich.

"I was on my way to talk to my floor manager to verify this information when Erin pulled me aside," he said. "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. 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 made the decision to suspend her campaign."

Walstad said the day was "chaotic."

"I called her at like 6 in the morning [on Saturday], she was in labor, and it was a conversation of like, 'I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can be there. I don't know if I can make it through that long of a period of time without having contractions. I don't think I want to have contractions in front of people,'" he said.

"To say I didn't know how to respond would be an understatement," Walstad continued. "I encouraged her to do what she needed to for herself."

Maye Quade's wife, Alyse Maye Quade posted about the birth of their daughter, Harriet Blake Maye Quade on Sunday, 10 days earlier than her due date.

"Mom did awesome, even in the moments that got a little intense, and especially when it came to pushing baby girl out," she wrote. "Actually seeing the power and determination, push after push - I'll never look at my wife the same again, she is so powerful."

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• Minnesota Senate