Omar Fateh challenges the two-term Mayor in the Minneapolis Mayoral Race
"Mamdani of the the Minneapolis"
Minnesota state Senator Omar Fateh, the first Muslim and first Somali American elected to the state’s Senate, is mounting a formidable challenge to incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey in Minneapolis’s mayoral election scheduled for Tuesday, November 4, 2025. The 15-candidate election has evolved into a decisive struggle between progressive democratic socialist and centrist Democratic management approaches since George Floyd’s death turned Minneapolis into a national police reform center in 2015.
Coalition Strategy working for Omar
Fateh has formed an unprecedented electoral coalition, the “Slate for Change,” with candidates Jazz Hampton and DeWayne Davis, urging supporters to rank all three ahead of Mayor Frey.
“We came together around a collective vision, and yet despite our differences, showing that Minneapolis can have a different kind of politics,” Fateh explained in a Democracy Now! interview.
The strategic alliance works to unite progressive voters through Minneapolis’s instant-runoff voting system, which lets voters select up to three candidates and requires the winner to receive half of the total votes.
The city of Minneapolis adopted ranked-choice voting in 2009, which leads to multiple rounds of vote reallocation during mayoral elections; thus, coalition building becomes essential. Hamline University Political Science Professor David Schultz describes the system through restaurant ordering: “You start by choosing chicken as your first option. And they come back and they say, well, we’re out of chicken, what’s your second choice”.
Progressive Platform Challenges Status Quo
Fateh runs his campaign on economic equality and police reform, proposing to raise Minneapolis' minimum wage to $20 per hour by 2028, implement rent control to prevent evictions, and build a new public safety organization.
“Five years after the murder of George Floyd, the mayor doesn’t have a plan, or doesn’t intend to have a plan,” Fateh stated during the Democracy Now! interview.
The 35-year-old democratic socialist has positioned his candidacy as a response to economic inequality, arguing that “Minneapolis seems to be a tale of two cities: one for the wealthy and well-connected and one for everyone else”. According to the Star Tribune, Fateh has proposed that “nearly half of the city’s police calls could be handled without an officer and called for investment in alternative public safety responses”.
Key Endorsements Split Along Ideological Lines
U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar endorsed Fateh in October 2025, calling him “a champion for working people” while criticizing the current administration for failing to show strong leadership. “The City of Minneapolis needs fresh leadership, which will address its current critical situation, according to Omar, who emphasized public safety, housing, and affordability issues. Fateh has also secured endorsements from Jewish Voice for Peace Action and labor unions, including SEIU.
Meanwhile, Mayor Frey has garnered support from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Senator Amy Klobuchar, representing the party’s centrist wing. “Mayor Frey is a partner I can trust, actually, to deliver progressive policies that improve people’s lives,” Walz stated in his endorsement. Notably, Frey lacks endorsements from any county commissioners or state legislators, according to Fateh’s campaign.
Big Money Shapes Competitive Race
The five political action committees backing Mayor Frey have donated large sums of money to flood the market with campaign materials, including glossy mailers and continuous social media and YouTube advertisements, according to Fateh. The need for substantial financial spending would not exist when an incumbent politician performs grassroots work to build relationships with voters and stakeholders and maintains effective partnerships with city council members and government agencies at different levels. Fateh explained.
The financial gap between candidates follows a pattern across the United States, where progressive candidates face well-financed establishment Democrats. Fateh’s rising campaign has drawn comparisons to Zohran Mamdani, who ran as a democratic socialist for New York City mayor, focusing on affordable housing and supporting working-class people.
Islamophobic Attacks Mar Campaign
Fateh’s candidacy has faced significant harassment rooted in anti-Muslim bigotry. In July 2025, conservative activist Charlie Kirk launched Islamophobic attacks, falsely portraying Fateh as part of a Muslim conspiracy despite his birth in Washington, D.C.. Mayor Frey, who is Jewish, immediately condemned the remarks, calling Fateh “a proud American who is running because, like me, he loves Minneapolis”.
In August, vandals targeted Fateh’s campaign headquarters in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, spray-painting “Somali Muslim — This warning is no joke” in black marker. “What we’ve seen in the last few years is that there have been over a dozen instances of attacks on mosques,” Fateh noted, adding that Minnesota has experienced mosque bombings and arsons totaling over $3 million in damages.
George Floyd’s Legacy Looms Large
The 2020 murder of George Floyd remains a dominant force in Minneapolis politics during this election cycle. The public strongly criticized Mayor Frey for his handling of protests during a June 6, 2020, incident in which thousands of people demanded the abolition of the police department. The crowd started chanting “go home” and “shame” when Frey left the scene after he stated he did not support complete police abolition.
The city implemented three immediate police reform measures following George Floyd’s death, which prohibited chokeholds and neck restraints, forced officers to document excessive force incidents, and required authorization for crowd-control weapon deployment. The implemented reforms have failed to solve fundamental problems, according to critics. Democracy Now! reports that Fateh presents his comprehensive public safety strategy in opposition to Frey’s step-by-step approach.
National Implications for Democratic Politics
The Minneapolis race reflects broader tensions within the Democratic Party over economic populism versus pragmatic centrism. “What we’re seeing with Zohran’s campaign and campaigns across the nation is that we’re seeing progressive candidates running on a sincere and authentic message around affordability,” Fateh observed.
He argued Democrats have “lost the message around how to improve the lives, around the costs of living, around renters that are struggling paycheck to paycheck”.
The election occurs as Democrats grapple with nationwide losses in the 2024 elections. Fateh positioned his campaign as offering authentic economic solutions, noting that while Donald Trump “was lying when he was running,” Trump understood that affordability messaging “would resonate the most with the population.”