Fateh threatened to block 2023 budget votes over Uber/Lyft driver protections, email shows

The big picture: Fateh's position mattered because Democrats' full control of the Capitol that session hinged on a one-seat majority in the Senate, meaning the two-year budget and other components of the DFL's ambitious agenda could have failed without his support.

• When asked at the time, the senator would not publicly admit to leveraging his votes.

Catch up fast: The push to pass minimum pay rates and worker protections for Uber and Lyft drivers fueled two years of political drama and debate at both the Capitol and Minneapolis city hall — including threats from Uber and Lyft to leave the state — before Gov. Tim Walz signed a compromise measure into law in 2024.

• The governor vetoed the version of the statewide rideshare driver bill Fateh authored in 2023 after a last-minute effort to pass it through both chambers, saying while he supported fair wages and protections for workers, the version that reached his desk was "not the right bill to achieve these goals."
• Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, whom Fateh is challenging this November, also vetoed city-level rideshare pay measures. The City Council overrode that veto in 2024, though Minneapolis' rates were later preempted by the state law.

Flashback: Democrats' narrow majorities in 2023— along with the eleventh-hour revival of the rideshare bill — fueled speculation around the Capitol that Fateh and his allies would hold out to get the legislation across the finish line by the late May adjournment deadline.

• On May 10, Fateh declined to say to the Minnesota Reformer whether he would hold up other bills if the rideshare legislation stalled.
• Days later, Fateh told Axios in a brief interview that he did not threaten to withhold votes over the bill, but said he had made it clear to leadership that the measure was a big priority.

Yes, but: In a May 3, 2023, email about his legislation to DFL leaders and 10 other DFL legislators, Fateh wrote he "will not be voting on any conference report on the floor until this passes on the floors of both the House and the Senate."

Zoom in: In his appeal to leaders to "expedite this [bill's] process," Fateh argued that the bill had been "dragged out unnecessarily" and complained that "there seems to be more loyalty towards Uber/Lyft," not the bill authors or drivers, who he noted are "predominantly BIPOC and immigrant."

• Fateh noted he'd backed legislation aimed at workers who are important constituencies for colleagues in swing districts: "I have been happy to support those efforts and be a team player, and believe it is important to support all workers."

What he's saying: "The use of leverage is a routine part of effective negotiation and legislating," Fateh wrote in a statement to Axios. "And in this case, it worked, and thousands of drivers throughout the state are benefiting from better pay and worker protections."

• He also said he "rejects" the premise that he denied threatening to withhold votes in 2023, even though he did not dispute Axios' reporting at the time.

Fateh, who has campaigned as a mayoral candidate on both the results of the 2023 session and a pitch to voters that he'd "lead with collaboration, not vetoes," declined an interview request for this story.

The intrigue: A similar dynamic to 2023 played out in the final weekend of the 2024 session, when Fateh's absence stalled action on bills for hours on the eve of the deadline for passing legislation.

• That delay contributed to a chaotic final night of lawmaking, as Democrats rolled outstanding bills into a single piece of legislation and pushed it through just before the clock struck midnight.
• They got the rideshare compromise done that year, but ran out of time for several other DFL priorities, including a package that would have funded state and local infrastructure projects.

Fateh has said he was in his office negotiating that year's rideshare bill with stakeholders when he was absent from the Senate floor.