Minneapolis DFL convention endorses democratic socialist Omar Fateh for mayor over Jacob Frey

The Democratic party of Minnesota’s largest city has endorsed a democratic socialist over a two-term incumbent mayor, according to Minneapolis DFL convention co-chair Ann Friedrich.

State Sen. Omar Fateh won at least 60% of the Minneapolis DFL delegate vote Saturday, defeating Mayor Jacob Frey in the party’s first endorsement of a mayoral candidate in 16 years, according to an initial announcement by Friedrich. Fateh won by a clear visual vote of delegates holding up their badges.

Many supporters of Frey were visibly absent from the floor at the time of the vote. There were quorum challenges — attempts to question the validity of the endorsement vote — afterward, and the Frey campaign said it plans to appeal to the state party.

Party officials invited Fateh to the stage at the end of the night to address the remaining delegates.

“Today we witnessed a rejection of politics as usual, a rejection of the inhumane way we have been treating our unhoused neighbors, a rejection of the way our mayor has turned his back on labor,” Fateh said. “Yes, we secured the DFL endorsement, but we know the status quo are going to do anything and everything to maintain power. They’ll have all the money in the world, they’ll have all the influence in the world ... but they don’t have you.”

Frey campaign manager Sam Schulenberg said in a statement: “This election should be decided by the entire city rather than the small group of people who became delegates, particularly in light of the extremely flawed and irregular conduct of this convention. Voters will now have a clear choice between the records and the leadership of Sen. Fateh and Mayor Frey. We look forward to taking our vision to the voters in November.”

Confusion and distrust over electronic balloting snarled much of the Minneapolis Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s mayoral endorsement process, with voting slowly taking place over several hours.

By 7:45 p.m., only the first round of voting had been completed, leaving just Fateh and Frey left in the race for an endorsement. Fateh was in the lead with 43.85% of delegate votes. Frey followed up with 31.54%.

Frey campaign spokesperson Darwin Forsyth made a motion to void the results of the first ballot, saying he wanted it redone with paper ballots, but that proposal failed.

Subsequent ballots for the mayoral endorsement were to be paper ballots, party officials announced at one point. It took nearly two hours to get results from the first ballot using the electronic process. According to party officials, this was partially because the technical consultant in charge of tallying experienced a medical emergency and had to leave the convention.

Frey supporters made proposals to suspend the rules and adjourn the convention without a mayoral endorsement, but were voted down.

Around 9 p.m., with just one hour left before the convention had to end according to its contract with the Target Center, Minneapolis City Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai made a successful motion for delegates to vote on the mayoral endorsement by raising their badges. Chughtai is a Fateh supporter.

Steve Brandt and Bob Fine were endorsed for the Board of Estimate and Taxation, and Charles Rucker, currently an at-large commissioner on the Park and Recreation Board, was endorsed in his campaign to win the board’s District 2 seat. The endorsement process for Park Board continued into the night. Results will be posted on the Minneapolis DFL website.

Hundreds of Minneapolis DFL activists has descended on the Target Center in search of a consensus on who would best represent the party in the fall election: Frey or Fateh, the leading candidates in the field of five.

Frey, a two-term incumbent who saw the city through the COVID-19 pandemic, is a relative moderate compared with Fateh, a democratic socialist who was elected to the Senate in 2020 amid a wave of progressive candidates.

Other candidates for the mayoral endorsement were Jazz Hampton, a lawyer who created the TurnSignl app, which provides real-time legal advice to drivers at traffic stops; the Rev. DeWayne Davis, lead pastor at Plymouth Congregational Church; and Brenda Short, a small-business owner. All three candidates were dropped following the first ballot, after failing to win at least 20% of delegate votes. All three said they would continue to run regardless.

Fateh, whose substantial lead in the delegates was well-known before the convention, was the only mayoral candidate who promised to end his campaign if another candidate won the DFL endorsement.

The DFL endorsement bestows the party’s symbolic vote of confidence, as well as volunteer power and voter files. Party members are discouraged from publicly supporting anyone other than endorsed candidates.

But the DFL hasn’t agreed on a mayoral endorsement since 2009, when R.T. Rybak broke through the 60% vote threshold for its backing.

Former Minneapolis DFL Chair Briana Rose Lee said it would be amazing if party members were able to unify Saturday around someone for the city’s top office.

“I’m not holding out hopes,” she said. “I know getting to 60 percent in Minneapolis is tough because it is a heavily opinionated city. But it would be great if we could.”

With no viable Republican Party in the city, political divisions have formed in the DFL between traditional Democrats and the party’s ascendant left wing that includes democratic socialists.

Several City Council members and contenders are democratic socialists, including two who already have been endorsed by the DFL: Ward 9 incumbent Jason Chavez and Ward 8 hopeful Soren Stevenson.

At the last DFL city convention in 2021, no mayoral candidate won enough votes to land the endorsement. Democratic socialist Sheila Nezhad came in first with 53%, followed by Frey.

In the weeks leading up to Saturday’s convention, divisions deepened when DFL activists formed a group called Protect Our Platform in an effort to block Minneapolis candidates from being endorsed by both the party and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Under a rule change proposed by the group, candidates winning both endorsements would have to accept the backing of only one.

The DSA “is not a political party, but it operates exactly like one ... and a quick read of the platform of both will reveal some drastic differences,” said Fifth Congressional District DFL Chair Scott Graham, a member of Protect Our Platform in his nonofficial capacity.

“The Democratic Socialists of America want to defund the police,” Graham said. “They want to disarm all law enforcement officers. They want to free all incarcerated people, legalize the sex trade, the drug trade, homelessness and squatting. I could go on.

“Those are some really good high points that we found to be in strident contrast to the DFL’s values.”

But he said Protect Our Platform eventually withdrew the proposed rule change “because it has become incredibly divisive,” counter to the group’s intent to strengthen party unity.

The convention opened Saturday morning with a speech by Minnesota DFL Chair Richard Carlbom, who framed the gathering in terms of national goals: putting a Democrat in the White House by repairing the party’s brand (currently popular with just at 38% of Americans) and reminding voters that Democrats are the party of working families, Social Security, Medicare and universal school meals.

“We are a coalition by definition, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party,” Carlbom said. “Our party is made up of farmers and laborers. Our party is made up of progressives, environmentalists, feminists, democratic socialists” — applause broke out at this — “gays, lesbians, bisexual, transgender.

“We come from different places. We come from different spaces. We represent what is best about America. Our differences are our strength. If you want to be an authoritarian party, go be a Republican.”

Lee, who opposed the attempt to divide DFL- and DSA-endorsed candidates, said the party could not afford to alienate its left wing.

“My problem is not with a Democrat that I agree with 98 percent of the time, and I think it’s sad that there are Democrats in this coalition and in our big tent who feel differently, and that would rather spend their time attacking members of their own party,” she said.

“I would rather us come united today, pick a candidate, and then we all unify under them, so we can maybe send our volunteer power to the suburbs.”

With minutes to go before the end of the convention, the remaining delegates approved two resolutions: To oppose any city or Park Board contracts with entities “complicit in the occupation and genocide of Gaza,” and to oppose the use of laser light projections by any city agencies or concert venues along the river, in order to protect migrating birds.