July 30, 2025
Fateh, 35, was elected to the Minnesota State Senate in 2020, becoming the first Somali American and the first Muslim to serve.
The Minneapolis DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) Party has endorsed State Senator Omar Fateh to be the next mayor of Minneapolis.
On X, Fateh said he is “incredibly honored to be the DFL-endorsed candidate for Minneapolis Mayor. This endorsement is a message that Minneapolis residents are done with broken promises, vetoes, and politics as usual. It’s a mandate to build a city that works for all of us.”
Fateh, 35, was elected to the Minnesota State Senate in 2020, becoming the first Somali American and the first Muslim to serve there. He is a first-generation American and husband who is running for mayor to “achieve the vibrant, loving city we know Minneapolis can be.”
“For working people, it’s getting harder to build our lives in Minneapolis,” he said on his campaign website. “With Donald Trump stepping back into the Oval Office, everything we’ve worked so hard to create is in jeopardy. It’s not enough to just stand up to Donald Trump. It’s time to push back with forward-thinking leadership.”
Fateh Criticizes the Current Minneapolis Mayor
Fateh said current mayor Jacob Frey has failed to deliver on his promises to end homelessness by 2022. He added that Frey has failed in delivering a vision for public safety since the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin.
“He vetoes every solution that comes to his desk,” Fateh said on his site. “It’s time for a Mayor who has real solutions that put Minneapolis residents first.”
Fateh won the Minnesota DFL’s endorsement at the party’s convention, beating four other candidates, including Frey. The convention was supposed to take place at North High School, but was moved to Target Center, where the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves play, to accommodate the 800 delegates and 800 alternates.
Frey’s campaign intends to appeal the results with the state-level DFL Party, a spokesperson told Axios.
“This election should be decided by the entire city rather than the small group of people who became delegates, particularly in light of the extremely flawed and irregular conduct of this convention,” Frey said in a statement. “Voters will now have a clear choice between the records and leadership of Sen. Fateh and Mayor Frey. We look forward to taking our vision to the voters in November.”
Fateh is the second Democratic socialist to make a splash. Zohran Mamdani, the Ugandan-born state assemblyman from New York City, in won the Democratic Party mayoral nomination this summer.
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