After Giving Her Convention Speech While In Labor, Erin Maye Quade Delivers A Victory

Maye Quade won the Democratic primary for her state Senate race in Minnesota.
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Erin Maye Quade made national news in April when she gave her convention speech while in labor. On Tuesday, she delivered ― a win in her Minnesota state Senate primary.

Maye Quade was beating Emmerich by 30 percentage points late Tuesday with 95% of the vote in. She’ll be the nominee for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (Minnesota’s version of the Democratic Party) in the open seat of Senate District 56.

If elected in November, Maye Quade will be the first Black woman to serve in the Minnesota state Senate.

April 23 was set to be a big day for Maye Quade. It was the date of the DFL’s nominating convention, where the party would pick the candidate to represent the DFL in the general election.

But at 2 in the morning, Maye Quade started going into labor. Her team said they felt as if they had little choice but to push forward at the convention, since no one offered to postpone it for her.

Throughout the morning, Maye Quade was working through her contractions, and she remarkably pushed through for hours. But video of her speech that day showed just how tough it was. Toward the end of her remarks, Maye Quade had to stop and lean over as she had contractions. The crowd cheered in support. (Watch the video above.)

The fact that no one ― not the organizers, nor the delegates nor Emmerich ― stepped in and proactively asked for the convention to stop drew attention not only to Maye Quade’s situation but also to the fact that pregnancy and labor don’t always receive the same treatment as other medical emergencies. Her supporters say that if someone had had a heart attack, for example, there seems to be little doubt that the proceedings would have been halted.

Maye Quade withdrew from the nomination process because she had to go to the hospital, where she delivered a baby girl. But a month later, she jumped back into the race, pushing it to a primary contest, and she picked up the support of groups like Planned Parenthood and EMILY’s List.

Maye Quade served in the state House from 2017 to 2019, just the third Black woman to serve in the chamber. In 2018, she ran as the DFL-endorsed candidate for lieutenant governor, becoming the first LGBTQ person endorsed on the ticket of a major political party in Minnesota. (She lost in the primary.)

In 2017, Maye Quade became one of the most visible faces of the Me Too movement in Minnesota, when she and other women accused a state senator of sexual harassment.

Maye Quade will face Republican Jim Bean in November.

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