Map: How Minneapolis' left held on to the City Council
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Before Minneapolis' election, Katie Cashman argued her City Council ward was only seen as fertile ground for Mayor Jacob Frey's allies because renter-heavy neighborhoods had rarely turned out in force.
- Turnout did skyrocket in Ward 7's downtown, Loring Park and Stevens Square — but it didn't save Cashman.
Why it matters: Ward 7 was one of two council seats flipped by Frey's allies, giving the reelected mayor more leverage over his fiercest critics inside City Hall.
Zoom in: Cashman carried Loring Park by a slimmer margin than she did two years ago, an Axios analysis found.
- Ditto downtown, which saw the greatest turnout increase — but Elizabeth Shaffer fared much better there than Cashman's opponent in 2023.
Plus: Three candidates ran for the Ward 5 seat with the endorsement of Frey-aligned PACs, and one of them — Pearll Warren — emerged as the winner after three rounds of ranked-choice tabulation.
The big picture: Ward 7 turned out to be the election's only true "battleground": Left-wing council members won three other races despite being outspent citywide nearly 5-to-1 by Frey-aligned PACs.
- Lydia Millard out-fundraised incumbent Aisha Chughtai 3-to-1, but carried only one Ward 10 precinct: the east shore of Bde Maka Ska.
- Shelley Madore similarly lapped Ward 2's Robin Wonsley in fundraising, but got trounced in all but one precinct.
- Josh Bassais also had significant PAC support in Ward 8, but Soren Stevenson received the most first-choice votes in all but one precinct.
The fine print: Candidates' second- and third-choice vote totals aren't yet available by precinct.