Minneapolis Council Member Andrea Jenkins won’t seek re-election

Minneapolis City Council Member Andrea Jenkins announced Monday that she won’t seek re-election, ending a long career in City Hall at the end of the year.

“There is still most of this year ahead us,” Jenkins told constituents in an email. “Minneapolis is a great City and I believe Ward 8 is the soul of this city. We have a lot of work to do.”

Jenkins told constituents she had spent months pondering the decision and vacillating on whether she wanted to seek a fourth term in office. In an interview, she said she considered many factors, including what a change in federal government might mean for transgender people, whether a less stressful lifestyle might help her multiple sclerosis, and what the changing nature of politics means for her job.

“In an era where compromise has become a dirty word, it is really challenging to be an effective, pragmatic leader in politics these days,” she said.

Jenkins began working as a staff member for the Minneapolis City Council in 2001 and noted “a lot has happened since then,” including the collapse of the I-35W bridge in 2007 and a deadly tornado in 2011 that devastated parts of north Minneapolis.

She was elected to the City Council in 2017, when she became the first transgender woman of color elected to public office in a major U.S. city. She has served as the council’s president and vice president.

Jenkins said she was most proud of work supporting cultural districts, which aim to help communities whose residents have historically been subject to discrimination; a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis; and work on the 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which was considered one of the most progressive housing policies in the nation when it passed.

Jenkins' ward has also been at the center of some of the City Council’s toughest political battles. Jenkins represents south-central Minneapolis, including the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, where George Floyd was killed. The City Council voted last week to override the veto of Mayor Jacob Frey and study creating a pedestrian mall in the intersection, a move Jenkins opposed.

Jenkins was among the nine council members who took the stage in Powderhorn Park after Floyd’s death and pledged to “begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department.” Like several of those council members, her views moderated somewhat, and she eventually found herself allied with Frey on some matters of policing.

She has faced challenges in recent years from candidates who billed themselves as more progressive and argued she hadn’t done enough to fulfill those goals. She won her last election by a narrow, 38-vote margin, beating out Soren Stevenson, who was endorsed by the local Democratic Socialists of America.

Even before Jenkins' announcement, two candidates — Stevenson and Josh Bassais — had announced plans to run for her seat this year. Jenkins said Monday that she believes she would have beaten both of them.

In her final months in office, Jenkins said she plans to focus on the future of George Floyd Square, consent decrees that could mandate changes to policing, and supporting the city’s Trans Equity Summit.

After that, Jenkins said she hopes to spend more time with her children and grandchildren and to “continue to be a strong advocate not only for the city of Minneapolis but for equity, equality and justice for all people.”

“I’m not leaving public life,” Jenkins said. “I’m leaving the Minneapolis City Council.”