Democratic socialists fresh off Mamdani victory see opportunity in Minneapolis

CNN

3 days ago

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Less than a month after Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York City's mayoral primary, some of Mamdani's allies are coalescing around another democratic socialist challenging the incumbent Democratic mayor of Minneapolis.
Minnesota State Sen. Omar Fateh has proposed enacting rent stabilization if elected mayor, disciplining and firing local police who work with immigration officers, and increasing access to affordable housing.
Fateh on Saturday won the endorsement of the Minneapolis Democrats at a convention that supporters of incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey have challenged, arguing the results were tainted by issues with the voting system. It's a setback for Frey, though one decided by several hundred delegates on the final ballot rather than the larger electorate in November.
Still, Fateh's emergence shows democratic socialism is on the upswing well beyond New York City, powered by record-low approval ratings for the Democratic Party and as many elected Democrats face criticism from the party's left flank.
'We are 2-for-2 with socialist mayors of major American cities,' exclaimed Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, a national climate justice group that also endorsed Mamdani, in a video she posted after Fateh's victory.
Fateh is the first Somali-American and first Muslim to serve in the Minnesota State Senate. In the state legislature, he has pursued funding free college tuition and securing a statewide living wage for ride-share drivers.
He told CNN that he already has more than 1,000 volunteers knocking on doors and making calls. He sees Mamdani's win as proof that progressives can lead with their values and still win.
'I think nationally the Democratic establishment has not done a great job speaking to the needs of working people for far too long,' he said.
Frey is a two-term incumbent who led Minneapolis during the COVID-19 pandemic and the protests and unrest following George Floyd's murder by a White police officer. He has positioned himself as a 'pragmatic progressive.'
He maintains that under his leadership, he's made important investments in affordable housing like through the Stable Homes, Stable Schools program aimed at getting Minneapolis public school students experiencing homelessness into housing or providing them with housing assistance.
'We have a chance right now to make Minneapolis a national model for how major cities that are run by Democrats can work, how they can deliver for people on everything from affordability to public safety,' Frey told CNN.
Frey has alienated some of the city's progressives with the use of his veto power.
Last year, he vetoed a council-backed resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, a Minneapolis minimum ride-share pay law and a carbon emission fees ordinance. But he argues the issues are more complicated than they appear on the surface and he had good reason to try to block some of what's come out of the city council.
'Occasionally, you do have to tell people what they don't want to hear when that in fact is the truth. I won't sign on to things like defunding the police or rent control, when those policies have been shown very clearly to not work,' Frey said.
Shiney-Ajay told CNN that her group and allies relied on the same sort of grassroots organizing as in New York to deliver Fateh's victory at the Minneapolis convention of what is formally known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
'We had a large, organized push towards getting people to go to the ward gatherings and then be able to get elected as delegates,' Shiney-Ajay said.
It was the first time in 16 years city Democrats made an endorsement for a mayoral candidate.
'I think this is really a sign of a seismic shift happening in the country right now of young people in particular, just calling for policies that actually improve the lives of everyday people and being sick of the status quo,' Shiney-Ajay added.
The endorsement means Fateh will get resources from the state DFL party like volunteers and access to the voter access network, the database that is given to endorsed candidates.
Frey noted that he came in second place at the nominating convention in his last two successful runs for mayor. His campaign has challenged the convention results, alleging hundreds of votes were missing or uncounted in mayoral balloting.
Local reports suggest the endorsing convention was chaotic, the party's online delegate voting system malfunctioned and at one point, some of Frey's supporters left the arena.
Minneapolis DFL Chair John Maraist says while Frey is well within his right to ask the state party for a review, the convention ran in accordance with the rules.
'I think when a lot of people see a vibrant and very participatory discussion, a debate over the rules, they see chaos but really this was very tightly organized,' Maraist told CNN.
Just as in New York, a final verdict on the Democrats' intra-party struggle in Minneapolis will come in the fall.
Many of Frey's supporters are also shrugging off the impact of the endorsement and believe he will ultimately win a third term.
'I think he's well positioned because both his record and his policy priorities are more closely aligned with the Minneapolis electorate than that of the city council, who is significantly to his left on issues like defunding the police and allowing homeless encampments,' said Jacob Hill, Executive Director of All of Minneapolis, a PAC that endorsed Frey.
Hill argues Fateh is too extreme.
'Omar Fateh makes Bernie Sanders look conservative,' he said.
Like New York City, Minneapolis has ranked-choice voting, but in the general election rather than the primary.
Some of Fateh's supporters are wary of deploying an 'anyone but Frey' strategy in the fall's ranked-choice general election contest, like what was used against Andrew Cuomo in New York, as they say that has not worked against Frey in the past.
'There were challenges to Mayor Frey in 2021 that used a 'don't rank Frey' strategy and that failed monumentally so just using that same terminology is not something we want to do, but there are three viable candidates that are opposing Mayor Frey,' said Chelsea McFarren, chair of Minneapolis for the Many, a progressive political action committee founded in 2023.
The group has not yet endorsed a mayoral candidate but would like to see Frey ousted in favor of a more progressive leader.