St. Paul voters choose Molly Coleman in special City Council election

St. Paul’s special City Council election Tuesday ended with Molly Coleman, daughter of former St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, winning with a comfortable majority of the vote in the four-way race.

Unofficial results posted by the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State showed her with about 52% of the votes with all precincts reporting.

“We win in St. Paul by staying true to our progressive values,” Coleman said to a room of supporters at Dual Citizen Brewing Co. on Tuesday night. She thanked her parents, husband and campaign staff.

“We have some challenging moments ahead of us,” Coleman said, referring to the Trump administration and local challenges. But, she said, “We have some incredible leadership in Mayor Melvin Carter.”

Carter, who endorsed Coleman’s run, stood near the front of a crowd cheering for Coleman. Carter faces his own re-election fight this fall, with Rep. Kaohly Vang Her declaring her candidacy for mayor earlier this month.

The three other candidates in the Ward 4 race – school board member Chauntyll Allen, public health educator Cole Hanson, and communications professional Carolyn Will – received less than a quarter of the ward’s total votes on Election Day.

Coleman will fill the vacancy created when former St. Paul City Council President Mitra Jalali resigned in January.

The other three candidates represented other significant political coalitions, but their affiliations were not enough to overpower Coleman.

Hanson ran with the backing of the Twin Cities chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and the council’s other DSA-backed member, Nelsie Yang of Ward 6. After the Minneapolis DFL endorsed the democratic socialist state Sen. Omar Fateh for mayor, Hanson’s candidacy had been another test for the DSA endorsement. But the endorsement was not enough to put Hanson into contention.

Allen, the only one of the four candidates with experience in elected office, had the backing of several locally prominent racial justice activists, including Nekima Levy Armstrong.

Will was tied to Save Our Streets, a group of Summit Avenue-area residents who have organized to oppose a new bike lane on Summit Avenue. But the bike lane was not a significant issue in the campaign outside that group’s members.

Will received the next-largest proportion of votes, at just over 21%.

Live election results are available for several other elections around the state, including a DFL primary to replace the late Rep. Melissa Hortman.

Because Coleman received more than 50% of the votes, there will be no reallocation of second-, third- or fourth-choice votes in the ranked-choice election.