Union leaders address DFL’s revocation of Fateh endorsement: “It’s a slap in the face to Minneapolis residents”

A day after an endorsement by the Minneapolis branch of the DFL for state Sen. Omar Fateh in the city’s mayoral race was revoked at the party’s state level, those against the decision are voicing their concerns.

“It is a slap in the face to Minneapolis residents, to DFL members and volunteers who worked fairly and collaboratively to conduct the convention. And more importantly, this is a distraction,” Chelsea McFarren, chair of the political committee Minneapolis for the Many, said at Minneapolis City Hall on Friday afternoon.

McFarren and members of unions and advocacy groups said at a news conference that the Minnesota DFL’s decision to revoke the endorsement “ignores the will” of the 8,000 people who attended the Minneapolis DFL Convention in July. 

Amanda Otero, co-executive director of Take Action Minnesota, was at the convention.

“Throughout the day, delegates received clear and consistent updates and explanations about the agenda and process from convention chairs and party leadership,” Otero said. “We decided together, by voting on motions about how we wanted to proceed at every step of the way.”

Rod Adams, executive director of New Justice Project Action, added, “It seems, for me, that people who do not live in this city have more of a voice than working-class Black folks, Brown folks and people who count on this city’s government to take care of them.”

Fateh, who is running as a Democratic Socialist, won the city’s DFL endorsement over incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey at the convention on July 19. Frey’s campaign then submitted a challenge to the state DFL, citing a “high number of missing or uncounted votes produced by the highly flawed and untested electronic voting system.” The campaign’s news release at the time also said that only 578 votes were recorded using the electronic balloting system, “even though over 1,000 delegates and alternates were checked in at the time of the first ballot.”

An investigation by the state DFL found about 200 votes were missing, a check-in sheet was left unsecured and a book with the entire Ward 5 credentials was lost. Due to all of that, the Minneapolis DFL isn’t allowed to endorse a candidate for mayor this year and is also on probation for two years. In addition, all of the candidates will be able to access the party’s voter rolls, instead of only the endorsed candidate. 

Frey said in a news release about the revocation that he’s “glad that this inaccurate and obviously flawed process was set aside.”

WCCO reporter Caroline Cummings is working on this story and will have the latest during this evening’s newscasts.