Minnesota Democrats Are at War Over the "Mamdani of Minneapolis"

Omar Fateh won the Minneapolis DFL endorsement on July 19, receiving more than 60 percent of delegates in final formal balloting over incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey. The state Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party later overturned the city endorsement. Fateh is a democratic socialist who has championed expanding affordable housing, rent stabilization, a $20-an-hour minimum wage, and worker organizing for unionized and non-unionized employees. Fateh's focus on affordability and energetic challenge to party lethargy drew comparisons to New York City candidate Zohran Mamdani, which Fateh embraced with the slogan "Minneapolis Next!" Representative Ilhan Omar called the state party's action inexcusable.

Anyone who knows the epic history of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party will tell you that its internal politics have often been contentious. But out of that contention have come some of the most dynamic figures to ever grace the national political scene: from presidential candidates Eugene McCarthy, Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey to more contemporary leaders on the left, such as the late US Senator Paul Wellstone, former US representative and now Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and US Representative Ilhan Omar.

The DFL is also a party where grassroots activists have often lifted up political outsiders and activists and put them on paths to prominence. So it wasn't all that surprising when, on July 19, the Minneapolis DFL endorsed the mayoral campaign of just such a rising star: state Senator Omar Fateh, a democratic socialist who has championed bold efforts to expand affordable housing and rent stabilization, supported a $20-an-hour minimum wage and taken up the cause of unionized and non-unionized workers.

Fateh's focus on affordability issues and his energetic challenge to Democratic Party lethargy have garnered comparisons to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani-another young, Muslim, democratic socialist anti-establishment candidate-with some calling Fateh "the Mamdani of Minneapolis." Fateh has embraced those comparisons. After Mamdani's landslide victory over former Governor Andrew Cuomo in June's New York City mayoral primary, Fateh declared, " Minneapolis Next! "

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