Rep. Cedrick Frazier announces run for Hennepin County Attorney, endorsed by Keith Ellison

The first candidate has officially entered the race to replace Mary Moriarty as Hennepin County Attorney, and he is carrying a major endorsement.

Rep. Cedrick Frazier, a three-term state representative from New Hope, announced Monday that he will seek the DFL endorsement to lead the state’s largest county attorney’s office with more than 500 employees and an $88 million budget.

“I think my entire life has been preparing me for this moment,” Frazier told the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Frazier’s candidacy was highly expected, and he is positioning himself to carry on some of the reform-minded ideals that Moriarty has pursued during her tenure. But he said he is not “Mary 2.0” no matter how others are pegging his candidacy.

“It will be my lived experiences, my perspectives that I will be operating from as a new leader, if I win this race,” Frazier said. “That’s important to know because I think it’s unfair to Mary and also think it would be unfair to any candidate to try and draw that line.”

Hours after Moriarty announced that she would not seek re-election nearly two weeks ago, Frazier released a statement that he was considering running for the position. Observers said rumors were circulating for weeks that political backers who supported Moriarty would turn that support over to Frazier’s candidacy.

Frazier’s announcement Monday was tied to an endorsement from state Attorney General Keith Ellison during an interview on radio station KMOJ (89.9 FM). The nonpartisan primary for county attorney will take place next August, with the top two finishers moving on to the general election in November.

“He’s a former [public defender] who worked with Mary in the office, and he has no recent courtroom or litigation experience,” she said. “What I’m concerned about is that I fear that Hennepin County will only get more of the same.”

Frazier said that argument lacked nuance.

“Once a litigator, always a litigator,” Frazier said, noting that as a labor attorney he is in the courtroom, though not as often as he used to be.

He said his approach to the office would start with criminal prosecution and holding people accountable for their actions. Frazier said that work can also include looking for ways to improve the justice system so when offenders are released to the community, they are situated in a way that benefits them and improves public safety.

“To talk about giving an equal amount of focus on the end, that itself is almost revolutionary,” Frazier said, “Because it hasn’t always happened. I think that’s where we are.”

“I believe you have to listen to those people, too; you have to understand that,” Frazier said. “You have to build trust for them to be able to hear you.”

Frazier’s experience growing up in the Englewood neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, where there was widespread gang violence and drug trafficking, shaped his worldview.

He said his mother emphasized education as a way to change his life.

“You were born into this,” he recalled her saying. “But this is not where you have to stop.”

Frazier attended the University of Minnesota Morris, where he played football and ran track while earning a degree in psychology. He worked with Moriarty in the Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office and served on her campaign committee. He entered politics in 2018, becoming the first Black man to serve on the New Hope City Council. He has continued to work as a labor attorney at Education Minnesota.

Frazier said if elected he would become the first African American county attorney in state history.

In his announcement, he pointed to legislative victories around red flag laws keeping guns out of the hands of people going through mental health crises; restoring voting rights for felons who have served their time; and securing millions of dollars for violence prevention programs.

After being elected to the state Legislature in 2020, Frazier was appointed to serve as vice chair of the public safety and judiciary committees where he had success building coalitions around public safety reform in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of law enforcement.

“He cares deeply about the issues of public safety and police accountability, and he has been an incredibly valuable voice in our effort to find a bipartisan solution that moves Minnesota forward,” Gov. Tim Walz said about Frazier in 2021.

He knows building consensus inside the attorney’s office would be essential. He said the staff is filled with people hired by former county attorneys Amy Klobuchar and Mike Freeman as well as Moriarty.

Several others have said they are considering a run to replace Moriarty, including: