State Sen. Omar Fateh, Frey’s main challenger, urged patience, reminding voters that the race isn’t over yet. Second-choice votes will be counted Wednesday to determine whether either candidate crosses the 50% threshold needed to win under the city’s ranked-choice voting system. If not, third-choice votes will come into play.
According to results from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office, Frey secured roughly 42% of first-choice votes with all precincts reporting, giving him a 10-point edge over Fateh, who drew about 32% while campaigning on a more progressive platform for Minneapolis, the Sahan Journal reported.
“This city showed up once again,” Frey told supporters. “We got what appears to be record turnout, and I’ll tell you what — it looks damn good for us.”
Both Frey and Fateh are Democrats. Fateh initially received the endorsement of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, but the state organization later withdrew it after raising concerns about the endorsement process.
“Tonight, we stay patient,” Fateh told supporters at a watch party event. “We stay proud because this campaign has already changed the conversation for what Minneapolis can be.”
Fifteen candidates appeared on the ballot, though the race was widely viewed as a two-way contest between Frey and Fateh.
Two other contenders — pastor DeWayne Davis and attorney Jazz Hampton — were considered long-shot challengers going into Election Day.
According to unofficial results from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office, Davis received nearly 14% of first-choice votes, while Hampton garnered about 10%, the outlet reported.
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Frey took a few moments to speak with Sahan Journal on Tuesday night between posing for photos with friends and supporters.
“The last five years have been heavy, to say the least,” Frey said. “But our city is resilient, persistent, filled with grit, and we’re experiencing this beautiful comeback right now.”
“I want to be part of making this a place we’re all proud to call home,” he said, with his parents standing at his side, the Journal noted.
Earlier in the evening, Frey shared that his parents had recently moved to Minneapolis — and that they were able to vote for him for the first time.
Speaking to issues regarding federal enforcement of immigration law despite Minneapolis’ sanctuary policies that prohibit local police and staff from working with ICE and the US Border Patrol, Frey said that President Donald Trump is “going to have to come through me and 435,000 other people that are standing up for undocumented immigrants and our LGBTQ community, and anybody else that he’s going to come at.”
Around 9:30 p.m., cheers erupted among Frey’s supporters as results showed him leading the race with 42% of first-choice votes and nearly all precincts reporting. Members of the Somali community followed the updates closely, checking their phones for new numbers, while others embraced and made video calls to share the news.
Frey took the stage shortly before 10:30 p.m. to address the crowd, which broke into chants of “Jacob! Jacob! Jacob!” He called his strong showing in the first-choice round a “comeback.”
“I am failing to find the words to signify how important this is,” Frey said, according to the outlet. “Let’s go, Jacob!”
“We’re going to make sure that Minneapolis is broadly recognized as the number one housing city in the entire country, where everybody has a foundation of a home from which they can rise,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that we have a foundation of safety in every neighborhood, in every zip code of this entire city.”
