The Minneapolis mayoral election will proceed to ranked-choice voting, as no candidate secured at least 50% of the votes in the recent election, according to the Associated Press.
Voters in Minneapolis can rank up to three candidates in city council races, and the mayoral race featured over a dozen candidates. As of late Tuesday night, Jacob Frey and Omar Fateh led the first-choice votes.
Fateh’s campaign has garnered attention nationally, with some likening him to Zoran Mamdani, who ran for mayor in New York. He has been dubbed the “Mamdani of Minneapolis.”
At 35, Fateh is the son of Somali immigrants and made history in 2020 as the first Somali-American elected to the Minnesota state Senate. This year, he took on incumbent Frey, criticizing the Democratic Party’s moderate stance and its struggle to meet evolving societal needs.
Interestingly, Fateh initially received the endorsement of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in the summer, marking the first such backing in 16 years for a Minneapolis mayoral candidate. However, the chairman later rescinded this endorsement, citing significant issues with the voting process at the convention.
Despite this setback, Fateh expressed his honor in being the DFL-endorsed candidate, emphasizing a desire for change in Minneapolis politics. He stated that residents deserve more than “broken promises” and “politics as usual.”
Backed by the Twin Cities chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and Representative Ilhan Omar, Fateh’s progressive platform has continued to attract support.
The ballot featured 15 mayoral candidates, with no primary held, so candidates can still align politically, though Minneapolis elections are officially nonpartisan.
Fateh has encouraged his supporters to list Rev. Dwayne Davis and attorney Jazz Hampton as their second and third choices to boost Frey’s backers.
In Minneapolis, if a candidate fails to achieve a majority of first-choice votes, ranked-choice voting is employed to ensure a winner emerges. Candidates with the least votes are eliminated in subsequent rounds, redistributing their votes until someone secures a majority.
Since 2013, every mayoral election in Minneapolis has included at least one round of ranked-choice voting. Frey himself won his first term after multiple counts in 2017 and was re-elected after two votes in 2021.
This mayoral race, underscored by social justice issues stemming from George Floyd’s death in 2020, has once again put Minneapolis in the national spotlight, especially following the tragic shooting during a back-to-school event at a Minneapolis church last August.
Endorsements for Frey’s campaign this year have also come from Governor Tim Walz and Senator Amy Klobuchar, as he navigates a challenging political landscape.
