Gov. Mark Dayton, who fainted Monday night during his State of the State speech, revealed Tuesday that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Despite the newly revealed diagnosis, collapsing during an address to the state and a series of back and hip surgeries, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor governor said he is up to the job.

“I think I am. If I don’t, I won’t continue,” the 69-year-old governor said after unveiling his $45.8 billion budget proposal Tuesday morning. He said that the cancer diagnosis was “grim, but it is what it is,” and that he does not expect it to impede his performance of his duties as head of state.

Dayton went to Rochester’s Mayo Clinic on Tuesday afternoon for assessment after his collapse, and said he will be treated there for the prostate cancer in the coming weeks.

JOVIAL AND GRATEFUL GOVERNOR

Dayton spent some time joking Tuesday afternoon, including noting that his brain is not in his prostate or his hip, on which he recently had surgery. Dayton said he was grateful for the bipartisan support that he received after he fainted Monday and joked, “If I has known that it was going to result in Republicans not criticizing my speech, I would have tried it years ago.”

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After the governor’s dramatic topple during his speech Monday, Republicans and Democrats with medical experience rushed to his aid.

“I stood up and I said, ‘I need to get up there,’ ” said Sen. Scott Jensen, a Chaska Republican and a medical doctor who was in the packed House Chamber the governor was addressing. “I wasn’t a legislator up there. I was a physician.”

On Monday night, as a quiet crowd awaited word of the prone governor’s status, the joint convention of the Legislature quickly adjourned. After a few minutes, Dayton rose, with some assistance, and left for home.

An hour after his collapse, Dayton’s staff and his son reported that the governor was doing fine at the governor’s St. Paul residence.

On Tuesday, Dayton said he was feeling well and not in any pain before he collapsed.

“I was not aware of any problem. I stumbled going up, but that wasn’t related to what happened later. I just stumbled,” he said. “I felt stronger in the speech, it was hot there, I was perspiring some. It really was just at the very, very end there. … It came up on me.

“The speech was too long,” he joked.

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In a statement, a Mayo spokesman said that the governor’s fainting spell was not related to his cancer diagnosis.

“Mayo Clinic believes this episode was situational and related to standing for a long time while giving his speech and possible dehydration,” said Karl Oestreich, Mayo’s director of media relations. “He was encouraged to stay hydrated.”

PROSTATE CANCER

Dayton said his doctors tell him the cancer has not spread, “almost certainly.” The governor said that after a routine prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test at his annual physical set off an alert, he had a biopsy last Wednesday confirming the diagnosis.

He said he had planned to reveal the cancer diagnosis to the public after he knew the course of treatment, but decided to make the news public after collapsing Monday.

“I think I gave up my medical privacy about six years ago. As I should,” he said. Dayton said he should know more about the treatment after an appointment next week.

Mayo Clinic spokesman Oestreich said offering more details would be premature.

Prostate cancer is not uncommon among older men. According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, 1 in 14 men ages 60 to 69 will receive a diagnosis. The American Cancer Society says “about 1 man in 7 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.”

KNOW MORE: What is prostate cancer?

Dayton, Minnesota’s oldest governor, will turn 70 on Thursday.

Dayton is not the first governor to receive such a diagnosis in recent years. Alaska Gov. Bill Walker underwent surgery for prostate cancer last month and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf underwent treatment in 2016 as well.

Dayton also noted that former Secretary of State John Kerry had undergone prostate cancer treatment.

The governor’s father, the late department store magnate Bruce Dayton, had surgery for prostate cancer, Dayton said. Bruce Dayton died at age 97 in 2015.

HEALTH CONCERNS

Dayton’s fainting spell in front of a statewide audience and his announcement of a cancer diagnosis has renewed political discussion about whether the governor will serve out his term.

The DFL governor has been public with his health concerns — including revealing in late 2009, when he was gearing up his gubernatorial run, that he struggled with depression and alcoholism when he served in the U.S. Senate — for years.

Since 2012, the governor had two back surgeries, a hip injury and has had follow-up treatment for those infirmities. Since 2012 through last year, he was out of the public eye for days or weeks at a time as he recovered. More recently, he has canceled official appointments when struck with minor ailments, such as a cold or a stomach flu.

The rumors about Dayton’s potential early departure from office have dogged him for years — and he has insisted he will not quit.

The governor’s staff — and political rivals — say the 69-year-old state CEO has not been diminished mentally.

“I don’t have any doubts about his capacity. He’s struck me, whenever I’ve dealt with him, as being sharp,” said former Senate Minority Leader David Hann, a Republican now out of office and running for Minnesota Republican Party chair. Like others, from both parties, Hann said he wished Dayton the best.

House Speaker Kurt Daudt, who has exchanged bitter words with Dayton in the past, said he wants Dayton to be healthy.

“We certainly care about him. We don’t have to agree on everything politically, but we care about each other as humans. We certainly want the best for him,” Daudt, R-Crown, said Tuesday. “Frankly, I’d like to have my sparring partner be healthy and vigorous because it’s a good challenge for me as well.”

Minnesota Management and Public Commissioner Myron Frans, who learned last week about Dayton’s cancer diagnosis, said the governor has shown no diminution of his faculties.

“We’ve been working unbelievably hard. Really through October, November, December, January, with all the special session stuff … and then we jumped into the really hard-core work on the budget in late November, early December,” Frans said. “He’s really — it’s hard to keep up with him, frankly.”

Indeed, Dayton staff and the governor himself have said that he, faced with a Republican dominance in the state Legislature and in Washington, D.C., is even more inspired to defend his core values.

In his Tuesday appearance, Dayton seemed out of breath at times and initially deferred to Frans to answer questions. But then he resumed with vigor — defending his continuing proposal for a gas tax increase, a public option for health care and the fees for hunting and fishing his budget plan includes.

“I want to give Minnesotans the assurance that I’m functioning normally,” he said, “which I certainly believe that I am.”

Bill Salisbury contributed to this report.