Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey secures third term after ranked-choice tally, holding off progressive surge
MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey won a third term on Wednesday, edging past a spirited challenge from state Sen. Omar Fateh after a second round of ranked-choice counting nudged him just over the 50% mark. The result capped an unusually high-turnout city election and set the stage for another term of divided government at City Hall in one of America’s most closely watched urban laboratories.
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What the numbers say
Unofficial results showed Frey with roughly 50% of the vote to Fateh’s 44% after second-choice preferences were reallocated. Election Night’s first-choice count had placed Frey at about 42% and Fateh at 32%, followed by the Rev. DeWayne Davis at 14% and attorney Jazz Hampton at 10%. With no majority in the opening round, the city’s ranked-choice system triggered an instant runoff by eliminating lower finishers and redistributing their supporters’ next choices.
Voters turned out in record numbers for a Minneapolis municipal election, with more than 147,000 ballots cast — about 55% of registered voters, city officials said. In a year without a national or statewide race, that kind of engagement is rare, and it speaks to the intense debates coursing through the city since 2020 over public safety, housing and how to rebuild trust in local government.
How ranked-choice voting shaped the outcome
Minneapolis allows voters to rank up to three candidates. If no one crosses the 50% threshold in the first round, the candidate with the fewest votes is dropped and ballots for that candidate are reallocated to the next-ranked choice, repeating until someone surpasses a majority. The system, adopted in Minneapolis more than a decade ago and used in a growing number of U.S. cities such as New York and San Francisco, is designed to reward coalition-building and reduce purely negative campaigns.
In this race, Fateh allied with Davis and Hampton, urging supporters to rank the trio and leave Frey off their ballots. Fateh ultimately picked up more second-choice votes than the incumbent, according to precinct tallies, particularly in younger and more progressive neighborhoods. But it wasn’t enough to overcome Frey’s advantage from the first round.
Rivals with contrasting visions
Frey, a moderate Democrat first elected in 2017, has steered Minneapolis through a turbulent period that followed the murder of George Floyd and the departure of hundreds of police officers. He campaigned this time on a message of steadiness: that crime, while still a public concern, has fallen from recent peaks; that policing is undergoing court-enforced reforms; and that a housing strategy mixing affordable units with market-rate construction is starting to slow rent growth and reduce homelessness.
“From right now through my final seconds as mayor, I will work tirelessly to make our great city a place where everyone can build a brilliant life in an affordable home and a safe neighborhood,” Frey said after the results were announced.
Fateh, a democratic socialist in his second term at the State Capitol and a prominent Somali American leader, ran on a platform that promised sharper turns: a city income tax on top earners, rent control, stronger tenant protections, and an end to encampment clearings. His campaign sought to harness the energy of activists who have pushed for systemic changes in policing and housing since 2020.
Conceding Wednesday, Fateh argued the race still shifted the city’s priorities. “They may have won this race, but we have changed the narrative about what kind of city Minneapolis can be,” he said. “Because now, truly affordable housing, workers’ rights, and public safety rooted in care are no longer side conversations; they are at the center of the narrative.”
Where the votes came from
Precinct-level results underscored Minneapolis’ political geography. Frey performed strongest in parts of southwest Minneapolis and the city’s core, areas that tend to favor pragmatist governance and are home to a high share of homeowners and older voters. Fateh led across Powderhorn, Lyn-Lake, Phillips, the University of Minnesota area, and Cedar-Riverside — neighborhoods where younger renters, immigrants and activists have given progressives their edge. Cedar-Riverside, a hub of Somali American civic life, has powered Fateh’s past wins at the Capitol and boosted his showing in this race.
If outside observers were looking for a referendum on how the city should move forward after the upheaval of 2020, the map suggests a split verdict: voters validated Frey’s incremental approach while signaling that the energy behind progressive reforms remains potent, especially in the neighborhoods that bore the brunt of unrest and are still recovering.
What City Hall looks like now
The outcome is likely to usher in another term of careful negotiating between the mayor and a City Council where progressives are poised to keep a narrow majority — short of the votes needed to override mayoral vetoes but strong enough to shape budgets and policy. In recent years, the two sides have sparred over police oversight, rideshare pay and climate policies, reflecting deeper tensions in Democratic politics from Minneapolis to Boston to Los Angeles: how far and how fast to push change in cities grappling with inequality and public safety.
The City Council is scheduled to certify the results on Monday. Frey’s office said he plans to outline third-term priorities later this week, with continued focus on police reforms under court supervision, recruiting officers and non-sworn responders, and scaling up housing production.
Why this race resonates beyond Minneapolis
Urban politics rarely stay within city limits. Minneapolis has been a bellwether since George Floyd’s murder thrust it into the global conversation on policing and racial justice. The city’s ongoing efforts — from consent-style agreements to alternative response teams and violence prevention — are watched by other U.S. cities and by lawmakers abroad who study American municipal experiments with as much curiosity as skepticism.
Ranked-choice voting is part of that story. Advocates argue it produces consensus winners and rewards civility; critics say it can confuse voters and lead to “exhausted” ballots that don’t count in the final tally. Minneapolis just delivered a real-world case study: a high-turnout contest in which a well-known incumbent won, but only after absorbing second-choice dynamics that forced both camps to broaden their appeal.
The questions for Frey’s third term mirror those facing many mayors across the developed world: Can a city build enough housing fast enough to stabilize rents without pricing out longtime residents? Can it reduce crime while rebuilding a police department under legal scrutiny and public skepticism? And can local government keep the trust of citizens who showed up in record numbers because they believe what happens at City Hall matters to daily life — the bus routes, the library hours, the safety at the bus stop after dark?
On a crisp November night in Minneapolis, those questions didn’t get easier. But they did get a clearer protagonist. Frey now owns the next chapter, with a mandate that is real, if measured. Fateh and the progressive coalition, meanwhile, leave this race with a platform that’s unmistakably part of the city’s center of gravity.
For a city that became a global touchstone for the hardest debates in American life, the choice was not a leap into the unknown. It was a bet on what many residents say they want most at this moment: stability, steady progress, and a mayor who can count to seven on the City Council — while convincing the rest of the city he’s listening.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
