With nearly all ballots counted in the first round, no Minneapolis mayoral candidate garnered enough votes to prevent second-choice votes from being a deciding factor in the race. Incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey holds a 10-point lead over his closest challenger, State Sen. Omar Fateh.
This summer, Fateh won the Minneapolis DFL’s endorsement in an upset, but it was pulled following a complaint by Frey, who alleged that there was an “extraordinarily high number of missing or uncounted votes.” The state DFL eventually sided with Frey, and the city’s DFL was barred from endorsing a candidate for mayor this year.
After polls closed at 8 p.m., WCCO News began providing live results online from every race in the state, including dozens of school referendums.
Who are the candidates running for mayor of Minneapolis?
There are 15 candidates running for Minneapolis mayor:
- DeWayne Davis
- Kevin Dwire
- State Sen. Omar Fateh
- Incumbent Jacob Frey
- Jazz Hampton
- Charlie McCloud
- Xavier Pauke
- Troy A. Peterson
- Andrea Revel
- Alejandro Richardson
- Brenda Short
- Adam Terzich
- Laverne Turner
- Jeffrey Alan Wagner
- Kevin Ward
The four candidates who have raised the most campaign funds are Frey, Fateh, Davis and Hampton.
What platforms are the Minneapolis mayoral candidates running on?
Frey is seeking his third term at the helm of the state’s largest city, but Fateh, Davis and Hampton have agreed to lobby for each other’s second- and third-place votes. Because Minneapolis elections are ranked-choice, it’s a strategy that could cost Frey his reelection.
Frey was first elected mayor in 2017. During his tenure, he’s touted his investments in affordable housing and he’s also emphasized his administration’s historic pay increases for the Minneapolis Police Department, as well as his focus on downtown revitalization. Critics however, have long denounced his handling of the unrest following the murder of George Floyd, as well as his disagreements with the city council over a pay boost for rideshare drivers, the creation of a labor standards board and a city budget.
Fateh was elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2020. The Democratic Socialist passed legislation that funded free college tuition for low-income Minnesotans and authored a bill to legalize fentanyl test strips, which advocates say is a key for harm reduction. His highest-profile legislation is a law that set a minimum wage and other protections for rideshare drivers, which came together in the final hours of the 2024 session.
Davis spent over 20 years in Washington, D.C., working for three members of Congress and progressive think tanks. He then turned towards ministry, leading the Plymouth Congregational Church.
Hampton grew up in Minneapolis, is a former attorney and is an adjunct professor of law in entrepreneurial studies at St. Thomas University. He is the CEO for TurnSignl, an app that connects drivers with local lawyers when they get pulled over.
Aki Nace
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