Omar Fateh, the son of Somali immigrants and a democratic socialist, is a leading candidate in the mayoral race in Minneapolis and seeking to unseat incumbent Jacob Frey. Fateh made history in 2020 by becoming the first Muslim and first Somali American to be elected to Minnesota’s state Senate. Fateh has run for mayor on a platform advocating for rent stabilization, raising the minimum wage and reforming how the city handles public safety. “Minneapolis can have a different kind of politics,” says Fateh. “Five years after the murder of George Floyd, [Mayor Frey] doesn’t have a plan, or doesn’t intend to have a plan.”

Transcript

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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

As voters cast early ballots ahead of Election Day this coming Tuesday, we end today’s show with the mayoral race in Minneapolis. Omar Fateh, the son of Somali immigrants, a democratic socialist, is the leading candidate seeking to unseat incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey, who’s running for a third term. In 2020, Fateh made history as the first Muslim, first Somali American to be elected to Minnesota’s state Senate. Fateh’s surging campaign has drawn comparisons to Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who polls indicate may be the first Muslim mayor of New York. Minneapolis Congressmember Ilhan Omar has endorsed Fateh, along with Jewish Voice for Peace Action and labor unions like SEIU.

Minneapolis implemented ranked-choice voting in 2009, which allows voters to choose up to three candidates in order of preference on their ballot. The winning candidate must receive at least half the vote. There are a total of 15 mayoral candidates on the ballot, with four Democrats, including the two front-runners, Mayor Jacob Frey and Omar Fateh. Fateh is the only top candidate who’s asked voters not to rank Frey, a centrist who’s faced widespread criticism over his crackdown on Black Lives Matter protesters following the police murder of George Floyd in 2020. Frey has received the endorsement of Minnesota governor, failed vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz.

Minnesota state senator and Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh joins us now.

We welcome you to Democracy Now! If you can start off by talking about what the slate is that you are a part of, for people to understand around the country this issue of ranked-choice voting, and what you are moving forward on now, your major issues?

SEN. OMAR FATEH: Yeah, first, thank you for having me.

So, we came up with the slate for change — myself, candidate Jazz Hampton and candidate DeWayne Davis — because we believe it’s the best — we are the best three candidates to move our city forward. We came together around a collective vision, and yet despite our differences, showing that Minneapolis can have a different kind of politics, where if you think differently, if you have slight differences in opinion around different issues, that we shouldn’t have an adversarial relationship, and that we can still be partners and doing the work for our people, for the people of Minneapolis.

And so, our vision includes one — or, my vision includes one in which we make Minneapolis a more affordable city, increasing the minimum wage to $20 an hour, passing rent stabilization to protect our renters so that they don’t get priced out. It includes having a public safety system that reflects the needs of everyone. Five years after the murder of George Floyd, the mayor doesn’t have a plan, or doesn’t intend to have a plan. And finally, we have a hostile federal government with Trump back in office, who has a trifecta. He has both the House and the Senate and the presidency, and on top of that, he has a Supreme Court that’s going to do and has been doing whatever he wants. And so, as a city, we need to build a strong line of defense to protect all of our vulnerable residents.

AMY GOODMAN: How do you feel, Omar Fateh, about being called the “Mamdani of the Midwest”? One of the issues that Zohran Mamdani raises in this New York mayoral race is the issue of big money. If you can also talk about the role of big money in your mayoral race, PACs protecting the interests of developers and funneling millions of dollars into campaigns and your chief rival, Mayor Frey?

SEN. OMAR FATEH: Yeah, what we’re seeing with Zohran’s campaign and campaigns across the nation is that we’re seeing progressive candidates running on a sincere and authentic message around affordability and making the lives of working families better. For far too long, the Democratic Party has lost the message around how to improve the lives, around the costs of living, around renters that are struggling with paycheck to paycheck, struggling to make the next month’s rent, struggling to pay for basic food and and healthcare costs. And so, this is kind of the reason why we saw a hard swing in 2024 with Trump winning the presidency and now candidates on the left or in the Democratic Party winning with a similar message around affordability. Now, was Trump lying when he was running? One hundred percent, of course he was. But he knew that that was a message that would resonate the most with the population.

And so, right now what we’re seeing here in Minneapolis is that Mayor Frey has five PACs right now — not one, not two, but five PACs — that have been well funded, that have been sending out glossy mailers, nonstop ads on social media and on YouTube and things like that. And the reality is that if an incumbent has been doing the on-the-ground work, connecting with residents, connecting with stakeholders, working well with city council and cross-jurisdictionally across different levels of government, there wouldn’t be the need to spend that much money and having five different PACs to defend you. It’s very telling that right now that the mayor doesn’t have a single county endorsement, county commissioner endorsement, or state legislator endorsement. And it’s because he hasn’t been able to work well with others and has handed the city off in his last two terms to the wealthy and the well-connected and not to working families. And so, that has been evident throughout this campaign.

AMY GOODMAN: State Senator, your headquarters, your campaign headquarters for mayor, in the predominantly East African neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside in Minneapolis, was vandalized with graffiti that read, “Somali Muslim — this warning is no joke,” in black marker. You’re certainly not the only Muslim politician to receive these threats in Minnesota and nationwide. I think about Ilhan Omar, who has also endorsed you, the congressmember for Minneapolis. But can you talk about the rise of anti-Muslim hate, racism in the country? And do you think the Democratic Party and other Democratic candidates and politicians are pushing back hard enough?

SEN. OMAR FATEH: Well, what we are seeing here in Minnesota, I believe, is a direct result of our welcoming, the way we welcome everyone and the way we uplift everyone. And what I mean by that is that we were the first state to have a Muslim congressman in Keith Ellison. We were the first state to have a Muslim congresswoman in Ilhan Omar, who has been serving honorably and serving CD5 and has been a rock star for all of us and a voice that we truly, truly needed.

What we’ve seen in the last few years is that, I think since 2024, there has been over a dozen instances of attacks on mosques, for example. Minnesota has had, I believe, the first and only mosque being bombed in the entire nation, over $3 million in damages, three mosques fully burned to the ground. Myself and other Muslim elected officials have been receiving threats on email and social media and — 

AMY GOODMAN: We have 20 seconds.

SEN. OMAR FATEH: Yes, and through social media. And so, the rise in hate we’ve been seeing has been a direct result of also Trump being elected. But in terms of campaigns, we’ve seen also Democratic campaigns latch onto this and use it in their own messaging and through their PACs to try to win their elections. And so, rather than going on the defense for one another, they’ve been using it to sow more hate.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you, Omar Fateh, for joining us, democratic socialist Minnesota state senator, Minneapolis mayoral candidate. The election is Tuesday.

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