Minneapolis City Hall winners hail from all corners of Dems' big tent
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Mayor Jacob Frey declared victory on a downtown Minneapolis rooftop after ranked-choice counting showed he won Tuesday's election. Photo: Nick Halter/Axios
Tuesday's elections were triumphal for Democrats across the country, including in Minneapolis, but the results did little to resolve an ideological struggle over the future of the national party or City Hall politics.
The big picture: The relatively moderate Mayor Jacob Frey won a third term in the deep-blue city by touting his willingness to stand up to policies he viewed as progressivism run amok.
- The second-place finisher — democratic socialist state Sen. Omar Fateh — made many of those policies centerpieces of his campaign: rent control, limits on homeless encampment sweeps; and potential new taxes on income, wealth and even vacant storefronts.
What he's saying: "We have to love our city more than our ideology," Frey told reporters Wednesday afternoon. "The opposite of Donald Trump extremism is not the opposite extreme."
Reality check: Voters also reelected most of the left-wing coalition that controls the City Council — many of whom share Fateh's liberal visions for the city.
- Left-wing candidates also won seats on the Park Board and the Board of Estimate and Taxation.
- An "avalanche of developer and landlord money backing [Frey] unfortunately overcame a campaign centered on working people," wrote Chelsea McFarren, chair of the outspent left-wing PAC Minneapolis for the Many. "Yet, despite their best efforts, voters retained our strong progressive majority on the City Council."
Yes, but: The mayor's allies managed to flip two council seats, which means the left-wing coalition will likely have a harder time mustering the veto-proof majority it's used to slow Frey's agenda.
State of play: Frey pledged to "work together in good faith" with the council — but added "there needs to be a mutuality to that … The needless attacks that we've seen should stop."
The other side: "It's going to take two to tango — a City Council and a mayor who are ready to work together," newly elected Ward 8 Council Member Soren Stevenson, who ran with democratic socialists' endorsement, told Axios.
Zoom out: Minneapolis' results came in an election that saw Democrats of both the center-left and democratic-socialist variety prevail nationwide.
- Fateh had been called the "Mamdani of Minneapolis" after New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, another ambitious democratic socialist state lawmaker.
"We are a big tent," Gov. Tim Walz told reporters when asked about Tuesday's election results.
- "I know a lot of people are like, well, 'Is [Mamdani] going to be the face of the party?'" Walz said. "Look, it's the mayor of New York City. It's a big job — but it is one of the many jobs we saw elected."
Axios' Torey Van Oot and Nick Halter contributed reporting.