In Minnesota Senate, Omar Fateh played hardball to achieve his goals

It was the second-to-last day of the 2024 legislative session and Sen. Omar Fateh was conspicuously absent from the Senate floor.

Fateh, now running for mayor of Minneapolis, went missing from the Minnesota Senate for more than 10 hours, bringing the chamber that Democrats controlled by a single vote to a halt until a deal was reached on his top priority, the setting of minimum pay rates for Uber and Lyft drivers.

The maneuver paid off, giving Fateh one of his biggest legislative victories. But it came with a cost: Democrats ran out of time to pass other priority bills, such as an infrastructure package that included money for Minneapolis.

As a legislator, Fateh has become known for his willingness to go to the mat for his priorities, even if it comes at the expense of his party’s broader agenda. A democratic socialist, he has fought for labor protections and helped create a tuition-free college program that became a signature win for the DFL’s left flank. But he has tested his colleagues’ support along the way with hardball tactics and several ethics controversies, including an alleged quid pro quo with a Somali news outlet and an election fraud probe.

“From all accounts, he has a record of significant success and also a record of being very difficult to work with and achieve outcomes that everyone can agree on,” said former DFL House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler. “I think his track record at the Legislature shows the upside and the downside of a democratic socialist activist in public office.”

The state DFL’s decision to revoke Fateh’s local party mayoral endorsement has rallied many progressives around his campaign. As Fateh seeks to oust Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, his record at the Capitol offers insight into how he might lead the state’s largest city.

Fateh’s mayoral campaign declined an interview request.

A year before, in May 2023, he issued an ultimatum to DFL legislative leaders saying he would not vote for any budget bill unless the House and Senate passed his bill boosting pay for rideshare drivers. Many Uber and Lyft drivers are from the large East African community in Fateh’s district.

“I want to make clear today, as I have already notified leadership, that I will not be voting on any conference report on the floor until this passes on the floors of both the house and the senate,” Fateh wrote in an email to legislative leadership, which was obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune and first reported by Axios last week.

After the Legislature passed the bill, rideshare drivers hoisted Fateh onto their shoulders and carried him through the Capitol in what became an iconic snapshot in the senator’s career. But Gov. Tim Walz vetoed the 2023 legislation after Uber threatened to pull out of all Minnesota markets except the Twin Cities metro area. Uber and Lyft said the 2023 bill would have increased ride prices by 50%, at a minimum.

Walz created a task force to come up with new legislation for the 2024 session. Fateh was appointed to the task force but withdrew without explanation, never attending a meeting, though he played a pivotal role in the bill’s passing in 2024.

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, said Fateh is passionate about achieving change and willing to leverage his position in the caucus for it.

Fateh has worked more collaboratively with DFL colleagues on other bills. As chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee, he spearheaded a bill that made public college free for Minnesota students whose families make less than $80,000 annually.

Sen. Jennifer McEwen, DFL-Duluth, said there were senators who didn’t take Fateh’s free college program proposal seriously when he first brought it to his caucus. But she said Fateh connected with colleagues from across the ideological spectrum and got them to buy in.

“He delivered something that I thought at the beginning of that session might not be possible,” said McEwen, who’s endorsed Fateh’s mayoral campaign.

Calls to more than half a dozen other Senate Democrats were not returned.

Fateh also has worked across the aisle with Republicans in some cases, including with former GOP Sen. Julie Rosen to legalize fentanyl testing strips. A year later, more than 100,000 fentanyl testing strips had been distributed to reduce opioid overdoses.

However, Abeler said he doesn’t think Fateh’s socialist ideology is practical.

“I think a lot of his moral compass is based upon a theoretical approach that may actually wind up being harmful in the end,” he said. “… You have to understand the impact while you go about your altruistic, giving dreams.”

Fateh also has faced controversies while in the state Senate.

Federal investigators looked into voter fraud allegations in Fateh’s 2020 primary election win against incumbent DFL Sen. Jeff Hayden. In 2022, they charged Fateh’s brother-in-law and campaign volunteer Muse Mohamud Mohamed with lying to a federal grand jury about Mohamed’s handling of absentee ballots during the campaign.

Mohamed was convicted of perjury, sparking a state Senate ethics investigation into Fateh. The Senate’s ethics subcommittee brought in Dawson Kimyon, Fateh’s former campaign manager and legislative aide, for testimony, but he declined to answer most questions, invoking the Fifth Amendment.

Sen. Mark Koran, one of the Republicans who filed the ethics complaint, said the investigation left him with many unanswered questions about Fateh’s 2020 primary win.

“There’s far more than smoke. There’s an inferno of election integrity issues relating to a state senator,” Koran said. He added that he found it hard to believe Fateh didn’t know about the mishandling of absentee ballots.

At the time, Fateh said in a statement he was “troubled” by the conviction and that his campaign was “committed to upholding our state’s election laws and processes.”

The ethics panel also investigated another complaint against Fateh related to him sponsoring a bill to provide $500,000 to nonprofit Somali TV of Minnesota after it aired campaign ads for him in 2020. Republicans accused Fateh of breaking Senate rules by not disclosing a conflict of interest, and they said Somali TV aired free promotions for him.

Fateh disputed the accusation and showed documentation of two $500 Cash App payments made to Somali TV that he said were for the ads.