The state Democratic Farmer-Labor Party is revoking the Minneapolis DFL’s endorsement of State Sen. Omar Fateh in the city’s mayoral race.
DFL Chair Richard Carlbom announced the decision in a written statement Thursday afternoon.
Carlbom said that the state party found “substantial failures in the Minneapolis Convention’s voting process on July 19,” and that “a mayoral candidate was errantly eliminated from contention,” referring to DeWayne Davis.
“As a result, the Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee has vacated the mayoral endorsement,” Carlbom’s statement said.
Omar, a two-term state senator who is challenging Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey this fall, received the endorsement last month after a convention mired in controversy. Most notably, the first ballot of voting, which was done electronically, took hours to tally and ultimately was missing votes from nearly 200 delegates. The slow tally was the result an equation breaking the system and the person in charge suffering a stroke, according to the Omar Fateh campaign.
A second ballot vote never happened, and Omar received the endorsement at the end of the night by a show of hands after most delegates for other candidates had left for the night.
Frey filed a challenge to the endorsement shortly after the convention, citing the missing delegate votes from the first ballot. He praised Thursday’s development in a written statement.
“I am proud to be a member of a party that believes in correcting our mistakes, and I am glad that this inaccurate and obviously flawed process was set aside,” Frey’s statement said. “I look forward to having a full and honest debate with Senator Fateh about our city’s future, with the outcome now resting squarely where it should — with all the people of Minneapolis.”
Graham Faulkner, co-campaign manager for Omar Fateh, told Sahan Journal that the campaign is considering appealing the decision.
In a written statement, Faulkner characterized the reversal as a decision made by “28 party insiders and establishment Democrats, including many [Jacob] Frey donors and supporters, [who] met privately and voted to overturn the will of Minneapolis residents.”
“Our campaign sees this for what it is: disenfranchisement of thousands of Minneapolis caucus-goers and the delegates who represented all of us on convention day,” Faulkner’s statement said. “The establishment is threatened by our message. They are scared of a politics that really stands up to corporate interests and with our working class neighbors.”
The DFL endorsement is coveted, and grants the winning candidate party resources and voter information. But perhaps most important of all is the candidate’s ability to brand themselves as “DFL-endorsed” in a city dominated by DFL politics.
Omar was the first Minneapolis mayoral candidate to receive an endorsement in 16 years, and the first-ever challenger to receive an endorsement against an incumbent mayor in the city.
Omar was also the first Somali politician to receive the endorsement for mayor.
Frey’s campaign wasn’t the only campaign critical of the convention process.
Davis, a pastor running for the office on a progressive platform, received 19.93 percent of the delegate vote on the first ballot during the convention and was eliminated. He narrowly failed to clear the 20 percent mark to reach the second ballot.
The Minneapolis DFL acknowledged earlier this week that Davis would have advanced to the second ballot had all the votes been counted properly.
“This just confirms what we already knew,” Davis said of the city DFL’s acknowledgement. “It proved that we had enough momentum to get to a second round.”
Davis declined to challenge the endorsement process, however, stating that his campaign is focused on the election.
Faulkner said that Fateh’s campaign is also focused on the election, stating that “this will not slow us down.”
“Let me be clear — we’re still in this fight,” Faulkner said. “And we’re going to win.”
Attorney Jazz Hampton, caregiver Brenda Short, and hotel prep cook Kevin Dwire are also running for mayor.
