The Mamdani of Minneapolis? Omar Fateh brings the left’s insurgency to mayor’s race

Three years ago, Minnesota Sen. Omar Fateh was in the hot seat, sitting through a Senate ethics investigation into an alleged quid pro quo with a Somali news outlet.

This past Saturday, Fateh was in a different place, riding high as Minneapolis Democrats endorsed him to be the city’s next mayor over two-term incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey.

Now the race begins in earnest, reflecting a conflict that’s been brewing for years: a comparatively moderate Democratic mayor against a rising young progressive who’s part of the ascendant Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) wing of the party — an election likely to draw national attention and money while potentially upending City Hall’s power dynamic.

Saturday marked the DFL’s first endorsement of a Minneapolis mayoral candidate in 16 years. The endorsement carries no legal weight, but is highly sought after in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, and can open party resources to Fateh.

It also marks another win for the DSA, after Zohran Mamdani defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s mayoral Democratic primary last month. Fateh has drawn national attention since Mamdani’s win, with some calling him the “Mamdani of Minneapolis.”

The endorsement represents the will of a fraction of Minneapolis voters — hundreds of delegates who tend to be more politically engaged than the average voter. More than 140,000 people voted in the 2021 Minneapolis election.

And the delegates’ favor hardly predicts the winner of the fall election.

In 2021, after one of the most tumultuous years in the city’s history when Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, community organizer Sheila Nezhad won more votes than Frey at that DFL convention.

During that campaign, Frey resisted pressure to support defunding the Police Department and advocated for the mayor to have more control over police. He was re-elected by 10 percentage points in a 17-person race.

Fateh supported the failed ballot measure to overhaul the Minneapolis Police Department.

Last year, a more progressive bloc won control of the City Council, including democratic socialist Robin Wonsley. She and her progressive allies on the council have sought to block much of Frey’s agenda and have been skeptical of police funding, pointed the finger at landlords and developers for rising housing costs, and criticized Frey’s treatment of the unhoused as lacking compassion — views shared by Fateh.

Fateh also supports a ban on the police interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Fateh called a June federal drug raid in south Minneapolis “blatant fascism,” accused the MPD of cooperating with ICE, and said it would be “unconscionable” for police to help with crowd control at an ICE raid.

Fateh knows what it is to run as an underdog. He unseated veteran state Sen. Jeff Hayden by nearly 2,000 votes in the 2020 DFL primary.

That victory came with heightened scrutiny. A federal investigation into ballot fraud during the primary later led to his brother-in-law being convicted of lying to a grand jury about his handling of absentee ballots as a campaign volunteer. No other charges were brought, but the case became part of the Senate ethics investigation.

Fateh was the first Somali American elected to the state Senate, yet Frey has generally enjoyed support among many in the East African community and has recently been highlighting his Somali support.

The Frey campaign is contesting Saturday’s results with the state DFL, questioning why only 578 votes were recorded on the first ballot, even though more than 1,000 delegates and alternates were checked in.

The campaign argues there’s no plausible reason why more than 20% of the total delegates and upgraded alternates would skip voting on “the most hotly contested, highest-interest business of the convention.”

Monday evening, Minneapolis DFL Chair John Maraist said he hadn’t had a chance to review Frey’s official challenge, but said, “We are confident that our handling of the convention will be upheld.”