In the race for Minneapolis mayor, state Sen. Omar Fateh on Saturday won the DFL endorsement over incumbent Jacob Frey during the party’s city convention, held at Target Center.
This is the first time in 16 years that the Minneapolis DFL has endorsed a candidate in the mayor’s race. Previous conventions have ended with no endorsement.
Fateh received the required 60 percent of delegates to secure the endorsement. Him and Mayor Frey were the top vote getters before Fateh prevailed.
” I am incredibly honored to be the DFL endorsed candidate for Minneapolis Mayor,” said Fateh in a post on X shortly after the convention ended. ” This endorsement is a message that Minneapolis residents are done with broken promises, vetoes, and politics as usual. It’s a mandate to build a city that works for all of us.”
Fateh was elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2020, becoming the first Somali American and first Muslim to serve in the upper house of the state legislature. He represents District 42 which includes the Phillips and Powderhorn neighborhoods of Minneapolis.
When he won in 2020, it was a shock to the system, having challenged a popular incumbent from his own party, Sen. Jeff Hayden – at the time one of only two Black people serving at the Minnesota Senate.
As was the case on Saturday, his road to winning the state Senate seat started by winning the DFL endorsement.
If elected, he will be the city’s first Muslim mayor and the second Black person to serve in the role after Sharon Sayles Belton.
When he kicked off his mayoral campaign in December, Fateh said the city deserves a mayor that works with the residents “instead of against us.”
In a statement, the Frey campaign said they plan to continue in the race even without the endorsement because “this election should be decided by the entire city rather than the small group of people who became delegates.”
The statement went on to say that the post-convention campaign that follows give voters an opportunity to contrast the two. “Voters will now have a clear choice between the records and the leadership of Sen. Fateh and Mayor Frey. We look forward to taking our vision to the voters in November.”
Three other candidates besides Fateh and Frey are also running, and they too have said they plan to continue their mayoral bids: Jazz Hampton, Rev. DeWayne Davis and Brenda Short.
The election is November 4. There is no primary for mayor ahead of the November election as the city uses Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) to elect its Mayor and City Council.
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About Tom Gitaa Gitaa, Editor-in-Chief
Born and raised in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa, Tom is the Founder, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Mshale which has been reporting on the news and culture of African immigrants in the United States since 1995. He has a BA in Business from Metro State University and a Public Leadership Credential from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He was the original host of Talking Drum, the signature current affairs show on the African Broadcasting Network (ABN-America), which was available nationwide in the United States via the Dish Network satellite service. On the show, he interviewed Nobel laureates such as 2004 Nobel Peace prize winner, Professor Wangari Maathai, the first woman from Africa to win the peace prize and heads of states. Tom has served and chaired various boards including Global Minnesota (formerly Minnesota International Center), the sixth largest World Affairs Council in the United States. He has previously served as the first Black President of the Board of Directors at Books for Africa. He also serves on the boards of New Vision Foundation and the Minnesota Multicultural Media Consortium. He has previously served two terms on the board of the United Nations Association. An avid runner, he retired from running full marathons after turning 50 and now only focuses on training for half marathons.
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