A Democratic socialist member of the Minnesota state senate won his party’s endorsement for the Minneapolis mayoral race over the incumbent, giving momentum to the progressive left’s political rise.
Omar Fateh, a state senator from Minneapolis’s southside, beat Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, who served as mayor during the George Floyd protests and through the pandemic. Fateh gained momentum after Zohran Mamdani, also a democratic socialist and state lawmaker, won the primary for New York City mayor.
Fateh was first elected to the state senate in 2020 and won re-election in 2022. He was the first Somali American and Muslim elected to the chamber. He chaired the higher education committee and advanced a plan for free college for families who make less than $80,000.
“I am incredibly honored to be the DFL endorsed candidate for Minneapolis mayor,” Fateh said after the endorsement win, referring to the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, the Democratic party in Minnesota. “This endorsement is a message that Minneapolis residents are done with broken promises, vetoes, and politics as usual. It’s a mandate to build a city that works for all of us.”
Frey’s campaign contends that the endorsement process in Minneapolis was flawed and an electronic voting system didn’t properly count all votes. He is planning an appeal to the state party, multiple local news outlets reported.
It is not unheard of for an incumbent to lose the party’s endorsement in the city – Frey came in second in his two prior runs for the office and still won the elections. In the endorsement process for Minneapolis races, local delegates vote for which candidate they want to endorse, then narrow down until a candidate tops 60% of the vote.
In the first ballot this weekend, Fateh got 43% of votes to Frey’s 31%. The tabulation took longer than expected, and some questioned whether all votes were actually included in the eventual tally, Axios Twin Cities reported. Frey’s supporters left the convention, and the remaining delegates voted by a show of hands, giving Fateh the win.
“I want to thank everyone who showed up to support my campaign,” Frey said after the endorsement loss. “This election should be decided by our entire city, not by a handful of delegates.”
The city uses ranked-choice voting, and the general election is this November.
After Mamdani’s win in June, Fateh posted a video in a similar style, talking about his plans for affordability, defending the city against Trump and public safety.
“Everyone keeps asking me, Omar, why aren’t you doing more videos? As a state senator with a second full time job and a kid on the way, I just haven’t been able to find the time,” he says while walking through the city.
Like Mamdani, Fateh focused on affordability and has emphasized that he is a renter throughout his campaign – topics he has been committed to as state senator as well. There are some Minnesota twists: “We’ll shovel sidewalks, build shelters, and finally reopen public spaces,” he wrote on X about his platform. “I’m here to fight for the people this city’s left behind.”
Fateh has been attacked with racist and Islamophobic comments by rightwing commentators in recent weeks. Charlie Kirk, the leader of Turning Point USA, claimed there has been an “Islamic takeover” in the country and shared Fateh’s video, saying people need to “commit to stopping all third world immigration”.
Fateh was born in Washington DC.
