Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey seeks to fend off democratic socialist’s challenge in a crowded race

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey faces a steep challenge in Tuesday’s election from a democratic socialist, a race that highlights different visions of how to govern in a liberal city confronting persistent problems with policing, crime and homelessness.

Frey, who is seeking a third term, is under fire from the left from state Sen. Omar Fateh, who hopes to become the city’s first Muslim and Somali American mayor.

Fateh has drawn comparisons with Zohran Mamdani, the socialist winner of New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, because of their backgrounds and ideological similarities. Both come from immigrant families, although Fateh, a member of the city’s large Somali American community, was born in the U.S.

While there are 15 candidates on the ballot, the only others who’ve raised significant sums are the Rev. DeWayne Davis and businessman Jazz Hampton, who are seen as left of Frey but right of Fateh. No candidates list themselves as Republicans in the heavily Democratic city, though one candidate with a GOP background, Laverne Turner, is running a low-key campaign as an independent.

Minneapolis uses ranked-choice voting instead of primaries. If no candidate wins an outright majority of the vote in the first round of counting Tuesday night, election officials on Wednesday will start eliminating low-finishing candidates and allocating second- and third- choice votes on successive rounds until there’s a winner.

Fateh, Davis and Hampton formed an alliance, urging their voters to rank one another, but not Frey, to make it harder for the incumbent to reach the 50% threshold.

Frey led Minneapolis through the turmoil and came under heavy criticism following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white officer used his knee to pin his neck to the pavement for 9 1/2 minutes. But his administration later negotiated agreements with the state and federal governments to remake a police department that lost hundreds of officers after Floyd’s death.

Fateh has backed off his early support for the “defund the police” movement, but he supported a ballot measure opposed by Frey and rejected by voters in 2021 that would have reimagined public safety in the city. Fateh continues to stress the need for alternatives to conventional policing. Frey says the city is already implementing them.

The ideological divisions also show up in the two candidates’ approaches to housing and other issues. Frey opposes rent control; Fateh says he advocates some form of rent stabilization without being specific. Fateh is critical of how the Frey administration has moved to shut down homeless camps.

Fateh has long championed the cause of Uber and Lyft drivers at the Legislature. Frey vetoed an attempt by the City Council to raise their wages after the companies threatened to pull out of the city. Fateh later used his leverage to force a compromise at the state level.

Fateh, like Mamdani in New York, is a strong opponent of how Israel conducted the war in Gaza. Frey, who is Jewish, vetoed a City Council ceasefire resolution that he considered one-sided.

All the leading candidates have vowed to stand firm against President Donald Trump and to resist his efforts to undermine Minneapolis’ status as a sanctuary city for immigrants — or any effort Trump might make to send federal troops into the city.