Minneapolis mayor and City Council candidates are off to the races for this year’s election

Minneapolis City Council and mayoral campaigns are kicking into gear, with debates beginning, money flowing and new PACs forming as the city barrels toward a huge November election where control of City Hall is at stake.

In Minneapolis, it’s not a battle between Republicans and Democrats — the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party has a firm grip on government. It’s a matter of how progressive they are. Much of the tension at City Hall boils down to the more progressive council majority disagreeing over details with the more moderate minority council members and mayor.

All 13 Minneapolis City Council members are Democrats or Democratic Socialists, and Mayor Jacob Frey is also a Democrat, and all of their seats are up for election this year. Farther-left progressives took control of the council last year, winning seven seats and the majority from moderates aligned with Frey.

That’s not enough votes to override a veto, however, and the council and mayor clashed over setting minimum pay rates for rideshare drivers; what to do with the former Third Precinct police station that was torched during the unrest after George Floyd’s police killing; the structure of a new Minneapolis labor standards board; whether traffic should be allowed to flow through a rebuilt George Floyd Square; and even how to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Three incumbent council members aren’t running for reelection: Andrea Jenkins and Jeremiah Ellison aren’t seeking reelection, and Emily Koski is running for mayor.

Check out all the candidates here.

As the DFL Precinct Caucuses approach on April 8, candidates and political action committees are gearing up, even though the official candidate filing period doesn’t begin until July 29.

Candidate forums are quickly filling up the calendar.

The University of Minnesota College Democrats kicked off the first mayoral forum of the year at the Coffman Student Union last week. In attendance were Frey, Koski, state Sen. Omar Fateh and the Rev. DeWayne Davis of Plymouth Congregational Church.

It was structured as a roundtable, not a debate, as candidates navigated questions about Gaza protests, public safety reform and the lack of affordable grocery stores.

But all Frey’s challengers seized on his strained relationship with the City Council, including his record-use of vetoes. Frey issued eight vetoes last year, and took the unprecedented step of vetoing the council’s budget.

Fateh called Frey “adversarial.” Davis said, “As mayor, the one thing that’s got to be very clear is that you do have to work with the legislative body.” And Koski said residents need more assurance that the mayor and council were in constant communication.

Frey acknowledged that many of the direct and implied criticism was directed at him. “Anybody who wants to work in good faith with me, I will work in good faith with them,” he said.

Political groups and politicians are coming out with endorsements already, and right now the big question is which of the more progressive mayoral candidates will pull away from the pack.

Moderate Democratic group All of Mpls released its slate of endorsements, headed up by Frey for mayor; Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America released its endorsements, headed by Fateh for mayor; Congresswoman Ilhan Omar endorsed council candidates; progressive group TakeAction Minnesota endorsed Fateh; and Minneapolis for the Many endorsed council candidates, but not a mayoral candidate.

Mpls for the Many Chair Chelsea McFarren released a statement saying, “We are excited to see three really qualified candidates in Reverend DeWayne Davis, Senator Omar Fateh and Council Member Emily Koski and are looking forward to learning more about their visions for the city, confident that residents have several good options for a new mayor.”

A new political action committee called We Love Minneapolis is making waves, because it’s headed up by former Frey campaign manager Joe Radinovich and Andrea Corbin, who runs a flower shop.

Radinovich, a former state lawmaker, said the goal is to get more people to participate in the process that determines who runs City Hall. The vast majority of candidates endorsed by the DFL Party go on to win in November, but only a tiny percentage of registered voters participate in the caucuses, where residents choose delegates to represent the precinct at a ward convention. The delegates vote for candidates at ward conventions between April 26 and May 31, so they wield a lot of power in a city that’s overwhelmingly DFL.

“In many cases, there’s a decision made six months before the election by three or four hundred people in a gymnasium that, in a lot of ways, sort of predetermines the outcome,” Radinovich said.

While We Love Minneapolis sounds similar to All of Mpls, All of Mpls does more traditional work later in the year, closer to the November election.

Another new political action committee called New Minneapolis is chaired by Thomas Datwyler, a conservative political consultant who has been treasurer for dozens of Republican candidates and political committees.

He’s been labeled the “shadow treasurer” for former Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) brief reelection campaign and accused of repeatedly violating federal campaign finance law, including in 2022, when he was accused of illegally coordinating advertising for Republican attorney general candidate Doug Wardlow and a group called Rescue Minnesota when he served as treasurer for both.

The two elected seats on the Board of Estimate and Taxation and all the seats on the Park and Recreation Board are also up for election in November.

Susan Du of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.