He was defeated for re-election by St. Peter School Board Chair and Gustavus Adolphus College Professor Don Ostrom in November 1988.

He represented the old District 23B, which included portions of Blue Earth, Brown, Le Sueur, Nicollet, and Renville counties in the south central part of the state.

[1] A stalwart conservative, Quist challenged incumbent Governor Arne Carlson in the 1994 gubernatorial election, with former U.S. Senate candidate Doug McFarland as his running mate.

[5] In early December 2009, Quist claimed that a marriage penalty exists in the U.S. House and Senate health care bills.

The following remarks (included in the speech which lasted a total of seven and a half minutes) were criticized by some members of the media:[7] "Our country is being destroyed.

[12] Quist believes that abortion should be a first degree homicide, and has said that it "is a genuine evil act, except when used to save the mother's life, it must be legally restrained.

[14] In the book, Quist talks about his anti-abortion stance and the need to overturn Roe v. Wade, saying that it is "one of the most dreadful Supreme Court rulings in history," and that "a majority of the justices legalized the murder of more people in just a few years than Herod and Hitler killed in a lifetime.

"[15] He added "[i]f our Nation would return to Christian ethical codes, the abortion revolution would come to an end and many other evils mentioned would be largely restrained as well.

He led efforts against extending human rights protections to gays and lesbians, supported by former Governor Arne Carlson.

[18] Quist has drawn criticism for a past statement he made suggesting that supporting a gay counseling center at Minnesota State University, Mankato would be similar to supporting one for the Ku Klux Klan, and saying that "its presence suggests university approval for the homosexual lifestyle and the practice of sodomy... You wouldn’t have a center for the Ku Klux Klan," and that "both would be breeding grounds for evil—AIDS, in this case."