Socialist Sen. Omar Fateh challenges Frey for Minneapolis Mayor

The long-time, forthcoming mayoral candidacy of state Sen. Omar Fateh finally came forth on Monday, with the posting of a 1 min. 35 sec. introductory video on social media. The video is long on platitudes and short on policy proposals.

Sen. Fateh introduced the video on Twitter (X) with this caption:

It’s an open question as to how much more vibrancy Minneapolis can withstand. Fateh’s objection to the incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey is Frey’s “failure” (more like refusal) to implement the far-left political program Fateh favors. Fateh held a formal campaign launch at City Hall on Monday. MPR news reported on Frey’s reaction:

In a statement Frey campaign spokesperson Sam Schulenberg welcomed Fateh to the race and said the campaign “looks forward to presenting voters with a clear choice between two contrasting visions for the future of Minneapolis.”

“Mayor Frey’s responsible leadership has helped the city recover while making critical progress toward rebuilding the police department, leading the nation in affordable housing, and supporting workers and local businesses,” the statement continued.

It goes on to point out Fateh’s previous support for the proposed 2021 charter amendment, which would have replaced the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety — and predicts Fateh would be “rubber-stamping the most extreme voices on the city council.”

Everyone involved in Minneapolis politics is some shade of Democrat. It can be difficult to keep track of the subtle ideological variations among the city’s Democrats, especially in the context of American political topography. With a conventional Democrat circa 2008 now considered to be “far-right,” making meaningful distinctions between Minneapolis Democrats would seem pointless, if the stakes weren’t so high.

Much will be made, by both the candidate and local media, of the historic, ground-breaking, barrier-shattering nature of Fateh’s mayoral campaign.

Further complicating matters is the city’s use of ranked choice voting (RCV). Under RCV, there will be no party primary to sort out the candidates, everyone advances to a multi-candidate ballot in November.

Under RCV, the object of the game is to predict who will finish in the top two or three, and to craft appeals to the voters backing the more extreme candidates dropping out as counting progresses.

The field of candidates grew by one more this morning as sitting city council member Emily Koski (Ward 11) announced her run for mayor, the Minnesota Star Tribune reports.

Back in 2023, I mapped out the ideology of city council candidates, and Koski fell in towards the middle.

In her announcement yesterday, however, she positioned herself to the left of Mayor Frey:

“Now more than ever, we need a mayor committed to advancing police reform,” Koski said.

All thirteen seats on the city council are also up for election in 2025.