The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party has overturned the city party’s endorsement of a democratic socialist challenging Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) following allegations of a flawed process at the party’s convention last month.
State DFL Party Chair Richard Carlbom said in a statement on Thursday that the party’s committee overseeing bylaws and rules found “substantial failures” in the Minneapolis party convention’s voting process and vacated the endorsement of state Sen. Omar Fateh (D).
“Now it’s time to turn our focus to unity and our common goal: electing DFL leaders focused on making life more affordable for Minnesotans and holding Republicans accountable for the chaos and confusion they’ve unleashed on Minnesotans,” Carlbom said. “With an eye towards the 2026 midterms, the Minnesota DFL will broaden our coalition to elect leaders who will build an affordable economy that works for everyone.”
Fateh received significant attention last month after he defeated Frey, who was running for his third consecutive term in office, to win the city party’s endorsement, giving him access to certain party resources as he tries to oust the incumbent. The party hadn’t endorsed a mayoral candidate in 16 years prior to backing Fateh.
But Frey appealed the party’s decision, arguing that technological issues tainted the process. Confusion dominated much of the process as the first round of voting took almost two hours to complete. A final vote was done by hand, but many of Frey’s supporters had left the convention by that point, and Fateh won the endorsement.
Frey praised the decision, saying he’s “proud” to be a member of a party that believes in correcting mistakes. He said the state party’s ruling acknowledges that officials failed to count 176 votes and one of the other candidates in contention for the endorsement was wrongly eliminated too early in the process.
Frey also noted that the report found a credentials spreadsheet was unsecured and accessed by other campaigns, the city party lost a credentials book for a ward and the check-in sheet for registration was also not secured.
“I look forward to having a full and honest debate with Senator Fateh about our city’s future, with the outcome now resting squarely where it should — with all the people of Minneapolis,” he said.
Fateh denounced the decision as disenfranchising those who backed him. He said in a video posted on X that 28 “party insiders” voted to take away the endorsement behind closed doors and argued the group included supporters and donors of Frey, in addition to non-Minneapolis residents.
“This is exactly what Minneapolis voters are sick of: the insider games, the backroom decisions and feeling like our voice doesn’t matter in our own city,” Fateh said.
He alleged that Frey’s team used delay and confusion as tactics because they didn’t have the votes.
“Let me be clear, we’re still in this fight,” he said. “And we’re going to win.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) also slammed the decision as “unacceptable.”
Fateh drew some comparisons to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, also a democratic socialist, following his initial win of the endorsement. Both races are part of a broader battle within the Democratic Party over which wing represents its future as leaders attempt to reorganize after the party’s losses in last year’s election.
