DFL is revoking Omar Fateh’s endorsement for Minneapolis mayor

The Minnesota DFL is revoking the local party’s endorsement of state Sen. Omar Fateh in the Minneapolis mayor’s race, citing “substantial failures in the convention’s voting process.”

Fateh, a democratic socialist challenging Mayor Jacob Frey, won the endorsement at the end of a raucous July convention that prompted dozens of challenges amid delays and miscounted votes.

The state party’s Constitution, Bylaws and Rules Committee reached a decision on Tuesday, according to sources, and had planned to release its findings publicly on Friday. Instead, the party released a draft of its findings Thursday afternoon following reporting by the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Here’s what we know so far:

Follow live updates below:

5:09 p.m. - Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the southeast corner of Minneapolis, called the decision “deeply troubling” and said “the party should be taking responsibility for its outdated infrastructure, lack of support for local organizing units, and the unfair reliance on unpaid volunteers to manage a citywide convention on their own.”

Revoking the endorsement “disenfranchises working people and neighbors across our city who elected delegates in good faith. This move reflects how out of touch the party establishment has become and risks further alienating its base.”

4:53 p.m. - The state DFL committee upheld all Park Board endorsements that were made at the Minneapolis convention.

- Ryan Faircloth

4:46 p.m. - The Constitution, Bylaws and Rules Committee found that the official Minneapolis DFL convention credentials sheet, which included the names of delegates and those who could vote, was left unsecured and was accessed by non-members of the credentials committee, including candidates’ campaigns.

In addition, Council Member Linea Palmisano, who supported Mayor Jacob Frey and left the voting floor toward the end of the convention, said she saw individuals picking up the delegate badges she and others had returned, and waving them as part of the final “show-of-hands” style vote that ultimately clinched the endorsement for Fateh.

- Ryan Faircloth and Susan Du

“It’s a slap in the face for East Africans who participated, and every Minneapolis resident who participated,” Osman said. “We were told to participate in democracy, and we showed up. We did everything we could to follow the process.”

Osman said he expected this move to create divisions within the DFL party going forward in general elections.

“It’s very unfair, in my opinion,” he said. “My community needs to be able to trust the DFL, but this kind of decision is a slap in the face.”

- Susan Du

4:31 p.m. - The local party’s endorsement raised Omar Fateh’s profile and drew comparisons with New York lawmaker and fellow democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, who won the mayoral primary in New York City.

Leading up to the Minneapolis DFL convention, moderate Democrats tried to make it impossible for DSA-endorsed candidates to get DFL nods, a move some DSA members saw as an attempted purge. The moderates backed off, saying the idea had become too divisive.

- Deena Winter

4:28 p.m. - Minneapolis City Council President Elliott Payne, who supports Omar Fateh for mayor, called the news “deeply troubling” and said it will have “reverberations beyond the city election this year.”

“When the donors don’t get the outcome that they want through the party process, they go to a super party process outside of the norm to try to reverse the decision of the delegates,” Payne said.

“It’s an extremely short-sighted thing to do, not just tactically but philosophically,” he added. “It basically is turning their backs on the entire concept of this being an inclusive party that is multi generational, multiracial and based on values. Apparently, it’s based on money, and you can just buy the outcome you want.”

4:25 p.m. - In addition to revoking Omar Fateh’s endorsement, the state DFL committee barred the Minneapolis DFL from holding another endorsing convention this year.

It also placed the Minneapolis DFL on probation for two years and said it must be supervised by the state DFL’s executive committee during that period. The Minneapolis DFL must submit best practices and compliance plans to the state party for approval, and establish “that it is capable of acting in accordance with standard DFL principles and practices.”

After the report was released, Minnesota DFL chair Richard Carlbom said in a statement that “now it’s time to turn our focus to unity and our common goal: electing DFL leaders focused on making life more affordable for Minnesotans and holding Republicans accountable for the chaos and confusion they’ve unleashed on Minnesotans.”

- Ryan Faircloth and Allison Kite

4:21 p.m. - Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement Thursday afternoon he is glad “this inaccurate and obviously flawed process was set aside.”

- Ryan Faircloth

4:16 p.m. - Council Member Michael Rainville, who represents parts of northeast and downtown Minneapolis, said he agreed with the state DFL’s decision to pull Fateh’s endorsement.

“[The convention] was poorly run, without a doubt,” he said. “I’ve been involved in politics since my early adulthood, and that was the worst-run convention I saw. So hopefully the city DFL party learns the lesson from this and becomes more organized.”

- Susan Du

4:14 p.m. - Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai, a Fateh supporter who pushed for the votes in the final moments of the Minneapolis DFL convention that led to the endorsement in July, said the actions by the state DFL was “undermining democracy.”

- Susan Du

4:12 p.m. - The DFL released a draft report of the Constitution, Bylaws and Rules Committee’s findings on Thursday. The committee found that the electronic voting system used by the Minneapolis DFL was “substantially flawed,” and that the first ballot in the mayoral endorsing contest was undercounted by 176 votes.

As a result, candidate DeWayne Davis was improperly dropped from contention when he should have made it to the second ballot, the report states.

For those reasons, the committee concluded that the first and second rounds of voting on the mayoral endorsement “must be disregarded in [their] entirety.”

- Ryan Faircloth and Allison Kite

“The state DFL should have invested resources in the city party to support inclusive and fair caucuses and conventions but instead they stood by and now they blame us for messy outcomes,” she said in a statement.

Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw, of north Minneapolis, faulted this year’s Minneapolis DFL convention for being “extremely confusing” for delegates like her.

“The numbers weren’t adding up,” Vetaw said, referring to the number of votes counted being significantly fewer than the number of delegates signed up. “I’m glad the [state] DFL has investigated this. I mean, I was there wondering ... what happened to my vote? I never got a confirmation [email verifying votes cast] either.”

Council Member Linea Palmisano, of southwest Minneapolis, said she was proud to have won the DFL endorsement five times, but found the mayoral convention “disgraceful.”

“The Minneapolis DFL admitted that they didn’t count hundreds of vote and that they incorrectly eliminated a candidate,” she said, referring to the improper elimination of the Rev. DeWayne Davis after the first round of voting, when he actually had enough vote to stay in. “Our party’s integrity would be undermined if we allow an endorsement won by cheating, favoritism and excluding votes to stand.”

3:53 p.m. - DFL Party Chairman Richard Carlbom said the committee reviewing the process found “substantial failures in the Minneapolis Convention’s voting process” at the July convention, including local party officials’ acknowledgement that mayoral candidate DeWayne Davis was “errantly eliminated from contention.”

The party said it “vacated the mayoral endorsement as a result.” Here are its full findings.

- Briana Bierschbach

3:30 p.m. - Omar Fateh’s co-campaign manager Graham Faulkner said in a statement Thursday that “28 mostly out-state, establishment Democrats, including many Frey donors and supporters, 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. 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,” he said.

- Ryan Faircloth

3:18 p.m. - The Minneapolis DFL could appeal the decision to the state executive committee, according to a party official.

The Minneapolis DFL had no comment Thursday. Chair John Maraist said he hadn’t seen a copy of the report and would have nothing to say.

- Matt McKinney

3:09 p.m. - Former state DFL chair Mike Erlandson said he heard from several people that the state party would revoke Fateh’s endorsement.

On Thursday, he said it was an “effort by a few to step on democracy.”

Erlandson said he doesn’t know if the committee’s decision will lead to an investigation of the Minneapolis DFL, which was among his requests, or if anyone associated with the Minneapolis DFL convention will face consequences.

Minneapolis DFL Chair John Maraist, who has defended the convention against the numerous challenges, had no comment Thursday.

The Minneapolis DFL leadership has stood by its endorsement of Fateh, writing in response that the delegates were in charge and acted in accordance with the rules they adopted.

There was an error with duplicate votes, but it was corrected, Maraist has said.

- Matt McKinney

2:51 p.m. - Fateh won the Minneapolis DFL’s support in the convention’s final minutes when a raise-your-hands style of vote was called after it appeared many of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s supporters had left the convention floor.

Earlier in the evening, Fateh beat Frey 328 to 227 in the first round of balloting, coming short of the 60% threshold necessary to secure the endorsement.

The convention fell into disarray after the first ballot because an electronic voting system overseen by head teller Amy Livingston bogged down, according to witnesses and the Minneapolis DFL.

A secretary to the Minneapolis DFL’s executive committee emailed others after the convention to report that data generated by Livingston’s spreadsheet was “obviously faulty.”

- Matt McKinney

2:43 p.m. - Losing the endorsement means Fateh will no longer be identified as the DFL-backed candidate in the race and he won’t have access to party lists of voters and other resources.

State Sen. Jennifer McEwen, DFL-Duluth, said she thinks the party’s decision to revoke the endorsement from Fateh will hurt the party more than it will hurt him. She endorsed Fateh’s campaign for mayor.

“It really is a kind of betrayal,” said McEwen. “I worry about people just leaving the party, or I worry about a fissure within the party.”

- Ryan Faircloth

In Minneapolis, more liberal members have been reshaping the City Council but have been unable to oust the more moderate Frey, who is seeking a third term in the mayor’s office.

The Minnesota DFL declined to comment on Thursday.