Minneapolis mayoral candidate Jazz Hampton believes he can bring peace to City Hall

Minneapolis mayoral challenger Jazz Hampton had a surprising heart-to-heart with one of the city’s most respected elder statesmen, R.T. Rybak, when the two sat down together at St. Anthony Main this fall.

The much younger Hampton had been trying to connect with voters through daily social media videos about the state of the city, and viewers had suggested he bring on Rybak as a special guest. The former three-term mayor agreed, on the condition he make one thing clear from the outset — he never endorses mayoral candidates, wanting to support and advise the eventual winner no matter who it is.

But in the course of their talk, Rybak ended up praising Hampton, a complete political rookie, in no uncertain terms as the candidate most serious about mending the city’s divisions.

“I really want to applaud you more than any candidate for being the one who is focused on lifting up the common good,” Rybak said. “Nobody is trying to unify the city overtly, at least as much as you are, and that’s a huge thing.”

Hampton, 35, is the youngest of the four leading mayoral candidates. His wide-ranging career has spanned law, business and academia, but when it comes to politics, he’s clearly the least tested, having never served in elected office or even on a neighborhood board.

Instead, Hampton has an outsider’s perspective on local politics. He said he’s tired of reading about City Hall’s political infighting and one-upmanship every time he checks the news. His one big reason for running is to put an end to it.

“Listen, I could not begin to say who’s who started it or who’s being the bigger meanie, but what I do know is the relationship is broken, and we need a leader that can step in and unify the work that we’re trying to do in the city,” Hampton said.

Hampton said he wants the city to work more closely with its struggling school district and partner with more youth development agencies. When his car was stolen in August, he took it as evidence of this need. If the police ever caught the culprit, Hampton said, he’d offer the kid an internship at his company.

That Hampton is somewhat “naive to the political circus that is in Minneapolis” actually makes him refreshing, said City Council Member Emily Koski, a moderate who endorsed Hampton after ending her own mayoral bid earlier this year.

“Will the learning curve be a little steeper? For sure,” Koski said. “It is something that I know he could do, especially by surrounding himself with good people. ... I’ve seen him dive into community, making those connections and listening and learning.”

Hampton majored in computer science before going to law school. To build courtroom experience — and pay down student loan debt — he worked as a corporate lawyer representing Sam’s Club, Ruby Tuesday and TCF Bank.

While he loved the thrill of litigation, representing large companies wasn’t the mission-driven work he imagined doing with his life, Hampton said. When Philando Castile was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a bungled traffic stop in 2016, the incident inspired Hampton and his friends to create a live video app, TurnSignl, which pairs drivers who are pulled over with lawyers who offer advice and de-escalation.

Hampton exudes the confidence of a lifelong overachiever, a former football player who was also president of the dance club where he met his wife. A fast and unfiltered talker, he described putting a full life on pause: Before stepping into the race, he taught entrepreneurial finance at the University of St. Thomas and served on four nonprofit boards, including the Great North Innocence Project, where he also worked on the pro bono team of the exonerated Marvin Haynes.

Former City Attorney Jim Rowader believes Hampton could have made a great executive of a large corporation. But it was when he heard Hampton talk about needing to get over the personality conflicts blocking progress at City Hall that Rowader became convinced that Hampton really “gets it.”

Rowader believes City Hall’s dysfunction starts with people who are too invested in determining who’s on their team and who isn’t, rather than earnestly solving the long-term challenges keeping Minneapolis at a standstill.

“Jazz in particular, really focuses on, ‘How do you reach out to everybody, even people you don’t agree with, and include them in the conversation?’” Rowader said. “He’s very invested in collaboration and focused on, at the end of the day, ‘This should be kind of a unified city moving forward.’”

Conventional wisdom says Hampton’s chances of winning are slim. A political newcomer who launched his campaign later than the other main candidates, he pulled just 5% of delegates’ first-round votes in the Minneapolis DFL convention in July. While the jostling between Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and his leading challenger, democratic socialist state Sen. Omar Fateh, has dominated the news, Hampton has to work harder to tell people who he is.

Last month, Hampton and other leading mayoral challengers — Fateh and the Rev. DeWayne Davis — held a joint “rally for change” in south Minneapolis. Their strategy, predicated on ranked-choice voting, was to drum up support for anyone but the status quo.

Hampton said he’ll keep trying to turn out the vote until Election Day, including joint door knocking with anyone who would canvass with him, even if their politics don’t align.

He’s done voter outreach with City Council candidates coming from his right and his left. But when Hampton announced he was going to door-knock with the outspoken and polarizing democratic socialist Council Member Robin Wonsley, some people reacted with mockery. Hampton said that’s the kind of divisive thinking that got the city in its mess.