The Democratic party of Minnesota’s largest city has endorsed a democratic socialist over a two-term incumbent mayor, according to Minneapolis DFL convention co-chair Ann Friedrich.
State Sen. Omar Fateh won at least 60% of the Minneapolis DFL delegate vote Saturday, defeating Mayor Jacob Frey in the party’s first endorsement of a mayoral candidate in 16 years, according to an initial announcement by Friedrich. Fateh won by a clear visual vote of delegates holding up their badges.
[...After endorsement Fateh spoke] “Today we witnessed a rejection of politics as usual, a rejection of the inhumane way we have been treating our unhoused neighbors, a rejection of the way our mayor has turned his back on labor,” Fateh said. “Yes, we secured the DFL endorsement, but we know the status quo are going to do anything and everything to maintain power. They’ll have all the money in the world, they’ll have all the influence in the world ... but they don’t have you.”Frey campaign manager Sam Schulenberg said in a statement: “This election should be decided by the entire city rather than the small group of people who became delegates, particularly in light of the extremely flawed and irregular conduct of this convention. 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.”
Well, the entire city will vote in November. Meanwhile, Minnesota has a primary system which likely includes city offices as well as State offices, so Frey will run somehow, and hopefully lose.
He's been nothing special, and if replaced, a new dawn will be welcome by many.
Alpha News, an extreme right-wing local Minnesota outlet reports:
So, both have good teeth. Beyond that, one is believed by Crabgrass to be a Somali-American, and the other Jewish. No reporting found by Crabgrass really fleshes out ethnicity, so we guess.
Alpha news has more interesting reporting:
“I am incredibly honored to be the DFL endorsed candidate for Minneapolis Mayor. 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,” said Fateh, a democratic socialist who is serving his second term in the Minnesota Senate.
The 35-year-old has been described as the “Minneapolis Mamdani,” a reference to Zohran Mamdani, a socialist who won a stunning victory in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City earlier this year.
After Mamdani’s victory in June, the Minneapolis chapter of the DSA declared Fateh’s mayoral run to be the next battlefront in advancing their socialist agenda.
Fateh’s record includes an unsuccessful bill to make Minnesota a “sanctuary state” for illegal immigrants and support for a 2021 charter amendment to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new “department of public safety.”
Frey campaign describes convention as ‘extremely flawed’
Frey’s campaign released a statement describing the Minneapolis DFL’s convention as “extremely flawed and irregular.”
“This election should be decided by the entire city rather than the small group of people who became delegates, particularly in light of the extremely flawed and irregular conduct of this convention,” said campaign manager Sam Schulenberg. “Voters will now have a clear choice between the records and leadership of Sen. Fateh and Mayor Frey. We look forward to taking our vision to the voters in November.”
One convention attendee, Will Stancil, elaborated on Schulenberg’s comments, writing on X: “The issue is that the convention rolled out an electronic voting system that seemed to break. No one is sure but many voters were not receiving confirmation emails their votes were recorded.”
[...]
After leading in the first round of electronic voting, Fateh ultimately received the endorsement in a process that involved delegates raising their badges for their preferred candidate. Video shows very few delegates raising their badges for Frey because, according to Wedge Live, his campaign “tried to deny quorum by pulling their people off the floor.”
[...]
The Frey campaign told Axios that they plan to challenge Fateh’s endorsement to the state party.
[links in original, to tweets, not publications] Tweets omitted, Another published report:
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/minneapolis-dfl-considers-5-nominations-for-mayoral-race-endorsement/ --- stating in part:
Sen. Fateh received a video-recorded endorsement from fellow state Sen. John Hoffman, who has been recovering at a rehabilitation center after he was shot in June during a targeted attack.
Residents supporting Fateh praised him as a backer of union workers and humane homeless response policies.
An endorsement of Fateh, who is running as a Democratic Socialist, would create a unique moment for the city’s DFL Party, possibly signaling a further shift for the party.
“People are starting to accept, you know, some more socialist and more, you know, to the left politics, which, in my view, is a good thing. It’s a progressive thing,” said Colton Baldus, a delegate in support of Fateh.
“It means that we’re starting to, I don’t know, put our weight in, and become more and more, you know, worker-centered in our politics, and I think that’s a very good thing.”
Two-term Mayor Frey was backed on stage by Red Lake Nation Secretary Sam Strong and Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt. Supporters of the mayor referred to him as the more moderate candidate.
Matt Saxe, a delegate supporting his reelection, said he considers the mayor “progressive on economics.”
“He understands that people are getting squeezed in this city, and that is one of the things he’s focusing on. I think he’s been doing a good job so far, and the idea is to keep down property taxes and not fall into this repressive taxation the Trump administration is trying to foist on the entire country,” Saxe said.
Delegate Saxe, you're entitled to your opinion, wrong as it is. That being the Crabgrass opinion.
The Hoffman endorsement is important because he and spouse survived the Boelter shooting which took the lives of Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman, DFL legislators.
A breath of fresh air hurts nobody, again a Crabgrass opinion. Frey is stale. A drag upon more progressive city council member policy choices.
_______________UPDATE_______________
NYPost reports, getting ethnic about Fetah being a Somali - American Muslim socialist, while acting as if Frey's ethnicity and political biases are irrelevant. It is information as to both. But NYPost is a Murdoch outlet, so don't expect fair and balanced reporting (a slogan never really met by the Murdochs).
NYP published this image of Fetah with a handful of supporters. Diverse, yes, but more important, young. As in those facing the future on a longer time scale than the old guard. Young and more restive. Crabgrass is a bit akin, being old and restive in the same policy directions.
