Frey campaign asks DFL to invalidate Fateh endorsement, cites convention problems

Citing “several well-documented problems” at the Minneapolis DFL endorsing convention, Mayor Jacob Frey is asking the statewide DFL Party to invalidate the Minneapolis DFL’s endorsement for mayor.

On Saturday, the Minneapolis DFL held its endorsing convention inside the Target Center. At that event, the party unit endorsed candidates for many local offices, but the most anticipated contest was the race for the DFL mayoral endorsement.

At the moment, the 2025 Minneapolis mayoral election is viewed as a contest between two candidates: Frey and State Sen. Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis. Frey is serving his second term as mayor after winning the office in 2017 and 2021, and Fateh is in his second term as a senator.

Both candidates are decidedly left-wing, but Frey is viewed as more mainstream given his clashes with the democratic socialists on the city council. Meanwhile, Fateh has drawn comparisons to Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City. Like Mamdani, Fateh is Muslim and aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

At Saturday’s convention, Fateh claimed the Minneapolis DFL’s endorsement for mayor. However, that endorsement came amidst allegations of faulty electronic voting systems and other problems. In the end, the endorsement was awarded to Fateh when delegates simply raised up their badges to indicate their preferred candidate.

In a formal challenge, Frey’s campaign is asking the statewide DFL to intervene and nullify the endorsement due to the problems at the convention.

The campaign’s primary rationale for its request is the alleged failure of the convention’s electronic voting system. According to the Frey campaign, there were only 578 votes on the first ballot for the mayoral endorsement despite the fact that there were over 1,000 delegates and alternates checked in at the time the first ballot was conducted.

The campaign said there is no plausible reason why so many delegates would not vote on the most high-profile race at the convention.

“Either the electronic balloting system did not correctly tabulate and record hundreds of votes that were cast, or the electronic balloting system malfunctioned so badly that those votes were never received by the system in the first place,” wrote the campaign. “In either scenario, the failure is disqualifying for the results.”

Further, the campaign said the electronic voting system malfunctioned so badly that the system was later discarded by the convention and the chairman of the Minneapolis DFL acknowledged the system was flawed.

“The dubiously low vote count and the well-documented technical failures caused many of our campaign’s delegates to leave the convention,” wrote the Frey campaign. “They were fed up, disillusioned with the process, and lost faith in the idea that their votes would be accurately counted and the convention would be conducted equitably and accurately.”

Most of Frey’s supporters had left the convention by the time Fateh was endorsed, which some have claimed was done by the Frey campaign in an effort to deny quorum.

On top of this, the Frey campaign said delegates were not given the option to vote for “No Endorsement” on the first ballot, which is a violation of the DFL Constitution and Bylaws. In the mayoral elections of 2017 and 2021, the Minneapolis DFL did not endorse a mayoral candidate.

Finally, the complaint says there were delegate access issues which included delegates and alternates being “inexplicably removed as delegates or downgraded before or at the DFL Convention.”

In addition to seeking the nullification of the mayoral endorsement, the Frey campaign wants “restoration of equal access to state Minnesota DFL Party databases and resources for all DFL candidates running for mayor.” Only candidates who receive an endorsement from a political party can use the resources of that party.

Frey’s campaign is asking the Minnesota DFL to conduct an expedited, emergency review of the matter given the interest from the public, the candidates impacted by the convention, and the delegates who have submitted challenges.

“All parties involved, and DFL voters in Minneapolis, will benefit from swift clarity on this matter,” said the Frey campaign.

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