Minnesota Republican congressional candidate Tad Jude in an undated campaign photo. (Source: Tad Jude for Congress on Facebook)

Republican congressional candidate Tad Jude downplayed his harsh abortion record in a recent debate for Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District race.

For the first time in his 50-year political career, Jude is seeking federal office by running for a seat in the U.S. Congress. During a Twin Cities PBS debate with his Democratic opponent Kelly Morrison last Friday, Jude diminished the importance of abortion rights at the federal level, contending that because the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion is a state issue.

“Abortion has been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court as a state issue,” Jude answered. “And I see it as a state issue; it’s not on my agenda in Washington … But as far as abortion goes, that’s a state issue.”

Jude also said that federal legislation is “not going to solve that issue. It is a state issue. It is not on my agenda.”

While serving in the Minnesota state Senate in 1988, Jude penned an amendment to a resolution condemning the bombing and arson of facilities that perform abortions, according to the April 13, 1988 Senate journal. Jude’s amendment included language that directed law enforcement agencies to not only investigate individuals who commit the bombings, but also those who committed violence against “unborn babies.”

He also attempted to change the language of the amendment with terms that minimized violence against reproductive health care clinics. He attempted to remove a reference to a reported 263 criminal acts that occurred in the previous 16 months by changing “263” to “a number of.” He also attempted to change the term for abortion providers from “medical staff” to “abortionists.” Jude’s amendment was eventually removed.

Jude’s campaign did not respond to Heartland Signal’s request to comment on his previous abortion rights record.

Jude told the Star Tribune in 1992 that he could oppose abortion rights and still be “prowomen and prochildren at the same time.”

Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District is currently held by Rep. Dean Phillips (DFL), who decided not to run for reelection because of his presidential campaign. When Phillips was elected to Congress in 2018, he was the first Democrat to win Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District since 1958. Morrison is projected to also hold the seat for the Democratic Party.

Abortion rights have been a focal point of Jude and Morrison’s race, as Morrison is a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist. Jude reportedly told CBS News that she is ready to “help lead the effort to protect access to reproductive health care for all Americans.”

Jude, on the other hand, told CBS Minnesota earlier this year that every abortion is a “tragedy.”

Morrison has served in the Minnesota House of Representatives (2019-2023) and the Minnesota state Senate (2023-2024). As of Oct. 16, Morrison holds a significant fundraising advantage over Jude, having raised $2.1 million to Jude’s $333,000.

Jude was initially a member of the DFL while serving in the Minnesota Legislature, but he changed affiliation to the Republican Party after he was elected to Hennepin County Board of Commissioners in 1989. In 2011, Jude was elected as Judge of Minnesota’s 10th Judicial District in 2011, a position he served in until 2021. Most recently, Jude ran an unsuccessful campaign in Minnesota’s attorney general election in 2022.