Note: This story was updated on Nov. 6 with an interview with Mayor Jacob Frey.
Mayor Jacob Frey won reelection after second-choice votes were tabulated Wednesday morning, beating a leftwing challenge from state Sen. Omar Fateh.
In a conversation with Sahan Journal Thursday, Frey reflected on his campaign, saying that the message of “positivity and hope” resonated with voters.
“I think the message of how we can work together, of finding areas of common unity rather than fault lines, is one that resonated with people,” he said.
Frey, who has said this will be his final term as mayor, noted that he has learned “countless lessons” from the past two terms. “When you bring a city through the hardest of times, you learn lessons that make you a better mayor and a better leader,” he said. “And I use those experiences every day.”
Frey faces challenges from Washington for Minneapolis’ sanctuary policies; U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem criticized the city’s policies during a visit to Minnesota last month. The mayor said the city will stand by its values going forward.
“More so than winning a campaign, what matters to me is governing hand-in-hand with our immigrant communities,” Frey said. “Donald Trump can arrest me. Bring it on.”
Housing and public safety are high on Frey’s agenda, both of which inspired him to start a career in public service, he said. “Housing is an area I would put my work up against any other mayor in the entire country,” he said. “We are broadly recognized as the number one housing city in the whole country.”
He rejected the idea of enforcing rent control, a key proposal from Fateh, saying the city has “developed a strategy that is working better than virtually anywhere else.”
He pointed to affordable housing investments, housing programs for Minneapolis public school students, and work with immigrant communities on housing policy as other solutions.
When asked about Fateh’s campaign, Frey said he was encouraged by the high voter turnout in the city this year, but kept it brief: “I appreciate his voice.”
Frey, who will now serve a third term as mayor, earned a 10-point lead over Fateh in first-choice votes Tuesday night, and emerged with 50% of the votes after first- and second-choice votes were added up. Fateh finished second with 44% of the vote.
Fateh issued a written statement Wednesday referring to his campaign as a “scrappy” but “well-organized challenge” to a two-term incumbent.
“Truth is, from day one, we knew what we were up against. Five PACs. Millions of dollars flooding into our city,” Fateh said. “I know that I, alongside the renters, the workers, the families, the people of this city who were long left behind, built something money can’t buy: people power.”
Fateh said a positive outcome of his effort was putting more focus on policy priorities like affordable housing, workers’ rights and more accountability in public safety. That focus ensures that beyond his campaign, those issues are “no longer side conversations; they are at the center of the narrative,” he said.
“They may have won this race, but we have changed the narrative about what kind of city Minneapolis can be,” Fateh said.
Frey took an early lead in votes
By Tuesday night, it was clear that Frey had won 42% of first-choice votes, building a comfortable lead over Fateh’s 32%. Fellow Democrat challengers Dewayne Davis and Jazz Hampton, who campaigned with Fateh at times and presented themselves as a slate for change, won 14% and 10% respectively, and were eliminated after the first round.
Frey gave an exuberant speech to supporters at his watch party Tuesday night even as a clear winner hadn’t been determined, telling the crowd his first-choice votes put him “well in the lead.”
The election saw record voter turnout in Minneapolis, with 55% of the city’s nearly 253,000 registered voters casting ballots, according to the Minneapolis Election and Voter Services Division.
“This year’s record-breaking turnout is something our entire City can be proud of,” said Katie Smith, Director of Elections & Voter Services. “It’s a reflection of the incredible dedication of our voters and the 1,900 election workers who made Election Day run so smoothly.”
This election is the first time Frey has won more than 50% of all votes in ranked choice tabulation. He earned just 45% of the final tabulation to win his first mayoral race in 2017 in a battle with several candidates that took five rounds of vote tabulation to resolve. He earned 49% on the final tabulation in his 2021 reelection.
Frey earned an equal share of first-choice votes, 42%, this year as he did in 2021. That year, progressive challenger Shelia Nezhad earned 21% of first-choice votes, while liberal Kate Knuth won 18%. But Knuth emerged as Frey’s runner-up in the second-choice tabulation.
Frey’s total margin of victory was slightly higher this year than in 2021; he earned about 3,000 more final votes than Fateh. But results also showed that Fateh gave Frey a stronger challenge than Knuth, earning 10,000 more final round votes than Knuth.
Fateh campaigned on increasing public services through property tax increases on land owners and adding a local option income tax rate on wealthy residents. He’s also proposing a rent control policy, putting a stop to the Frey administration’s practice of clearing homeless encampments, and working to add new housing stock.
Fateh and other challengers have criticized Frey over his attempts to reform the Minneapolis Police Department, which they argue hasn’t been successful or gone far enough. Frey said he is committed to ensuring reforms established by a federal consent decree that President Donald Trump’s Justice Department has since abandoned.
Frey has cited declining crime rates, low increases to average rents and city data showing a decline in homelessness as evidence that his administration is worthy of a third term.
Frey dominated in southwest Minneapolis, North Side
Frey carried much of the city’s North Side, and beat Fateh handily in downtown and much of northeast Minneapolis. Frey ran up the score in southwest Minneapolis, dominating neighborhoods like Fulton, Kenny, Linden Hills and Kenwood.
Fateh owned his senate district in south Minneapolis, and did very well in Cedar-Riverside and the neighborhoods surrounding the University of Minnesota. Fateh won the eastern portion of Uptown and in more diverse parts of northeast Minneapolis. He also took several precincts on the near northside.
Fateh’s route to potential victory hinged on supporters of other candidates ranking him second, with targeted campaigns asking voters to leave Frey off the ballot. But that plan didn’t work.
A majority of Davis supporters ranked Fateh second, but Hampton’s voters were more evenly split, with slightly more favoring Frey for their second choice, according to Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services data. Roughly 61% of Davis voters ranked Fateh second, with 23% ranking Frey second.
About 43% of Hampton voters ranked Frey second; 37% of their second-choice votes went to Fateh. About 3,000 voters who ranked Hampton or Davis as their first choice either didn’t rank another candidate, or ranked other candidates aside from Frey or Fateh.
Minnesota U.S. Senator Tina Smith (DFL) congratulated Frey on social media.
“Congratulations Jacob Frey on your victory in Minneapolis, my hometown,” Smith wrote on X. “Excited to continue our work together, especially on making sure all of our neighbors have a safe, decent and affordable place to live.”
