Erin Maye Quade gave a speech while in labor -- then had to withdraw from the race to give birth
For months, a running joke inside Erin Maye Quade’s campaign for the Minnesota state Senate was that the candidate, pregnant with her first child, might actually give birth April 23, the day Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party delegates would gather to vote on who would be the party’s nominee for the race. It would be a grueling convention, packed with speeches, in-person campaigning for delegates’ support and potentially multiple rounds of balloting. As fate would have it, at 6:15 a.m. Saturday, the day of the convention, Maye Quade texted her campaign manager, Mitchell Walstad, to let him know that she had gone into labor four hours earlier.
“We weren’t sure she was going to make it,” Walstad told The Washington Post. Nevertheless, Maye Quade arrived at the convention hall, and her team devised a plan to slowly walk her around to greet delegates, then whisk her back to their campaign room every 15 or 20 minutes when a new contraction would start.
By the time the candidate speeches began, her contractions were intensifying.
“This is our moment to build our future together,” Maye Quade told the roughly 200 delegates in attendance, as captured in a video shared on social media. “To unlock the powerful, life-affirming, transformative kind of politics that means we can … create economic opportunity and prosperity, and safeguard our civil and human rights …”
Here, Maye Quade paused for a beat and touched her stomach. Another contraction was starting.
“… and strengthen our human and public infrastructure … excuse me,” she said, before stopping again. She doubled over and gripped a nearby surface with both hands, in visible pain.
By now, it was obvious Maye Quade was in active labor. Many in the crowd cheered her on.
(snip)
The results from the first round of balloting showed Maye Quade’s prediction was correct: Emmerich had received 91 votes and Maye Quade 74, triggering a second round of balloting. Since she was at her “breaking point,” though, Maye Quade withdrew from the race so she could go to the hospital instead of remaining to try to convince delegates to switch their votes to her, Walstad said. Emmerich went on to win the DFL Party endorsement, unopposed, on the second round of balloting. Maye Quade delivered a baby girl, Harriet, some 12 hours later at about 2 a.m. Sunday.
More..
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/25/erin-maye-quade-dfl-speech-labor/
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Interesting that I found the story at the WaPO, also CBS, Fox 9, People but not... in the strib. I first heard it on WCCO morning news.
= new reply since forum marked as read
