The Battle for Minneapolis
Control of the city council is up for grabs in the election less than a month away.
As we get closer to Election Day 2023, we’ve been digging into the intramural battle in Minneapolis between the socialists represented by the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America (TC DSA) on one side and more traditional Democrats backed by the business-supported political action committee (PAC) All of MPLS.
For their part, the local Democratic party (Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL)) is backing candidates on both sides of the ideological divide, as are the usual labor unions and identity group-based nonprofits.
All thirteen seats on the city council are up for grabs, with each faction backing their seven favorites who would represent the majority and, thus, council control. To make sense of it all, we’ve created this table,
The candidates on the right represent the “conservative” slate backed by All of MPLS. The candidates on the left represent the “progressive” slate, backed by TC DSA and their supporting PAC, Minneapolis for the Many.
In addition, the progressive candidates on the left are also backed by a number of other notable leftwing PACs. It’s clear that the main battleground for the majority runs through wards 7, 8, and 12.
TakeAction MN (Take), the far-left political nonprofit, has endorsed their seven candidates. In TakeAction’s most recent campaign finance filing, they report putting resources (totaling $35,000) behind progressive candidates in wards 5, 8, and 12.
Ward 5 incumbent Jeremiah Ellison (progressive slate), in addition, boasts of endorsement by the local Bernie Sanders group Our Revolution Minnesota.
The national Our Revolution (Rev.) group has endorsed in three Minneapolis city council races (1, 2, and 5), as shown above. The local Twin Cities subchapter of Our Revolution has added endorsements for progressives in wards 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12. In addition they have “anti-endorsements” for the “conservatives” in wards 3, 4, and 8.
For its part, Our Revolution TC has come out in support of the extreme, pro-Hamas position of DSA. They reposted a link on Twitter (X) to the DSA position and are promoting a pro-Palestinian march to be held on Sunday. DSA has now “clarified” its earlier statement.
The race in Ward 6 appears to have been forgotten by the big players. Incumbent Jamal Osman has been endorsed by all of the usual far-left politicians (Keith Ellison, Ilhan Omar), but curiously, none of the usual progressive political nonprofits or PACs.
Ward 7 candidate Katie Cashman, Ward 8 challenger Soren Sorenson, and Ward 12 candidate Aurin Chowdhury all claim endorsement by the political nonprofit Faith in Minnesota (Faith). This nonprofit is the election wing of the political nonprofit ISAIAH. Faith reports spending money on all three of their races in their most recent campaign finance filing, in addition to making a $20,000 cash donation to Minneapolis for the Many.
You will recall our past reporting on Faith’s formidable get-out-the-vote machine, backed, in part, by George Soros’ money.
Sorenson, along with Chowdhury, is also endorsed by a Vermont-based PAC called “Greater Than” (Great) which registered with the state Campaign Finance Board late last month.
It’s going to be a fight to the finish.