In Minnesota’s governor race, breast cancer creates ‘a sisterhood’ among rivals
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Lisa Demuth was shopping for some final Christmas gifts for her daughters in 2009 when she got a call that changed her life. As she prepared for a Senate vote in 2021, Amy Klobuchar fielded a similar call.
Both women said they were stunned by the news of a breast cancer diagnosis.
“At that moment, a vote was called in the Senate. I had time to call my husband, and then I went onto the Senate floor, where they were just calling the names,” Klobuchar said, her voice trailing into the droning rollcall of her colleagues during votes. “It felt like, in my head, my whole life had changed, but nothing around me had changed.”
Demuth said she had to put down the items she was holding in the department store to process what the doctor was telling her. Then she asked what would come next.
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“What do I need to know right now to make the best decision for me?” she remembers asking. “I didn’t want all the information because it was really overwhelming. But what do I need to know right now in this moment?”
Barring an unforeseen twist, Minnesota will have its first female governor next year. That woman — whether it’s Klobuchar, the Democratic nominee, or Demuth, the Republican nominee — will be a breast cancer survivor. In separate interviews this month, they spoke with MPR News about confronting the diagnosis. Both said the experience fighting the disease would inform their healthcare policy platforms.
Britta Babel, senior grassroots manager with American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network in Minnesota, said it’s significant that a breast cancer survivor will soon hold the state’s highest office.
“I think they both really do recognize the lived experience that so many cancer patients in Minnesota deal with on a daily basis,” Babel said. “We’re excited to work with whoever it may be to just make sure that we’re tackling cancer and making it a policy priority.”
Difficult treatment choices
Within days of getting her diagnosis, Demuth got another bit of news: That her daughter was having a baby, Demuth’s first grandchild.
“I remember thinking, ‘Am I going to be alive to even meet this grandchild?’ And that mattered very much, but I never said it to anyone,” Demuth said.
After extensive consultation with her medical team, Demuth decided surgery was her best option. Doctors were able to remove the cancer just weeks after her diagnosis.
“I couldn’t get it off my body fast enough. Like I just needed it to be done,” Demuth said. “I chose a very extreme surgery so that there was no chance of recurrence, and that mattered to me.”
Klobuchar said she underwent surgery as well, in her case a lumpectomy followed by radiation treatment. She said it was a unique experience, not just due to the procedures.
“As I’m waiting there with kind of a drawn target on my breast, someone came up to me because they knew who I was, and spent about 15 minutes talking about Burma,” Klobuchar said.
Klobuchar said after her sedation wore off, her first question to her husband was about how the procedure went. “Successful,” he told her. She then asked him for her phone so she could have her office look into the concern about Burma.
The senator shared her diagnosis and experience publicly at the time. She said it was important to be forthright with Minnesotans.
“I think that’s part of your job as a leader,” Klobuchar said, citing the model of former first lady Betty Ford and her public fight with addiction and the normalization of treatment that her airing her problems helped drive. “She did a lot more for it than I could ever dream.”
Klobuchar said sharing the experience mattered and was, in an unexpected way, rewarding. She heard from several people who’d put off mammograms or check-ups but were encouraged to go in after hearing about her experience.
‘A sisterhood’
Demuth was a school board member when she was diagnosed. Her health struggle was kept to a tighter circle. Years later, she was among those who wrote to Klobuchar to pass along well wishes.
“I reached out after that and just sent a note, probably electronically,” Demuth said. “I remember the thought of at least when I was diagnosed, it was private, unless I chose to make it, you know, to tell anyone about it, and how different that is.”
Asked about the contact, Klobuchar said the note meant something to her.
“I appreciated that. And she was very kind about it, and I am again really, really happy that she is doing well as well,” Klobuchar said. “And it's kind of a sisterhood, right? No matter what differences you might have, that is a sisterhood.”
Both candidates said their experiences with cancer have reshaped who they are, physically and mentally.
“I have scars, but they’re just part of who I am. But I don’t think about it every day,” said Demuth, currently Minnesota’s House speaker. “I think more about the things, the opportunities that I have, the family that I have, the life that I’ve been gifted.”
Klobuchar said it gave her a sense of gratitude, too.
“It makes you appreciate the incredible doctors and nurses that I had,” she said. “Or just my husband getting up at four in the morning to take me to radiation, and it gives you a whole appreciation of that.”
As important to Klobuchar, she said, is “to keep looking for a cure.”
Healthcare access
Both candidates said their experiences with cancer will inform how they would govern.
Demuth has yet to unveil a health policy platform, but she said one that’s in the works will prioritize healthcare access, especially in rural parts of Minnesota, along with a pipeline for training medical professionals.
“Having the opportunity that I’ve had to experience breast cancer and need medical care, I want to make sure that's available for all Minnesotans,” Demuth said. “Our health plan is going to look at the issues of access and affordability.”
Klobuchar points to bills she’s advanced in Washington to guarantee coverage for mammograms, fund early cancer detection programs and boost research aid for cancer treatments. She said similar programs are needed on the state level. She also wants medical training pipelines and to offset the cost of insurance by replacing tax credits that Congress let expire last year.
“When you look at getting coverage for treatment and getting coverage for mammograms and all of that, I understand how important it is,” Klobuchar said.
Regardless of the race outcome, the next governor will bring a new perspective to the governor’s office, said Christina Ewig, the director of the Center on Women, Gender and Public Policy at the University of Minnesota.
“There’s pretty thorough research on women politicians and the fact that they do bring different issues to legislative agendas,” Ewig said, citing proposals addressing poverty, care for the elderly, healthcare, children and family issues among them.
“All politicians bring their personal experiences with them, and those do influence their actions while in office. But I would temper that by saying that other things also matter. Party affiliation matters a lot,” she continued. “Personal experience is brought to the table, but it's tempered by these other political constraints.”
As for Demuth and Klobuchar, being a survivor means remaining vigilant about their own health. Both routinely go in for aftercare check-ins.
Klobuchar, 66, said her most recent follow-up visit was over the summer.
“You still have that feeling of waiting and waiting and seeing if you have it again,” Klobuchar said.
Demuth, 59, said she feels the anxiety, too.
“The mental battle can be really hard. Just that worry you feel, especially as you age, you feel one little thing, and it can make you think, ‘Oh no, is that something?’” Demuth said. “Those thoughts don’t come as often as they did in that first year or two years for me. Eventually, it’s fine. I’m just getting older.”
They are both cancer-free.
