What began as a closely watched and polarizing mayoral contest in Minneapolis has erupted into a full-blown crisis for Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), with ripples that could shape the city’s—and perhaps the state’s—political future. On August 21, 2025, the Minnesota DFL’s state committee took the extraordinary step of revoking its endorsement of Senator Omar Fateh for Minneapolis mayor, following weeks of mounting tension, accusations of insider maneuvering, and a cascade of technical failures at the city’s endorsing convention.
The controversy traces back to July, when Fateh, a democratic socialist and rising star among the party’s left wing, clinched the Minneapolis DFL’s endorsement in a citywide convention. The victory was hailed by supporters as a breakthrough for progressive politics in the city, likening Fateh to other insurgent figures on the national stage. Yet, almost immediately, critics—most notably incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey’s campaign and other party insiders—filed formal complaints challenging the validity of the process.
At the heart of the dispute was the convention’s voting system. According to Axios, the electronic system used to tally delegate votes was plagued by technical problems, failing to capture approximately 95 ballots with valid codes and ultimately producing a final count that was 176 votes short. The chaos didn’t end there: the credentials book for Ward 5 was lost, and candidate DeWayne Davis was mistakenly eliminated after the first ballot, despite clearing the threshold to continue. After hours of confusion and debate, many of Frey’s supporters abandoned the convention, leaving Fateh’s backers to declare victory by a show of hands.
The fallout was swift. State DFL Chair Richard Carlbom, who was appointed by Governor Tim Walz and whose former consulting firm had received about $30,000 from Frey’s campaign this year (as reported by local news outlets), announced the state party’s findings on August 21. Citing “substantial failures in the Minneapolis Convention’s voting process,” Carlbom said the Minneapolis DFL would be barred from endorsing a mayoral candidate this year and placed on a two-year probation. “After a thoughtful and transparent review of the challenges, the Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee found substantial failures in the Minneapolis Convention’s voting process on July 19, including an acknowledgement that a mayoral candidate was errantly eliminated from contention,” Carlbom stated, calling for the party to “focus on unity and our common goal” of electing Democrats and holding Republicans accountable for “the chaos and confusion they’ve unleashed on Minnesotans.”
For Fateh and his supporters, the party’s move was nothing short of disenfranchisement. “Our campaign sees this for what it is: disenfranchisement of thousands of Minneapolis caucus-goers and the delegates who represented all of us on convention day,” said Graham Faulkner, Fateh’s co-campaign manager, in a statement quoted by Axios. He added, “The establishment is threatened by our message. They are scared of a politics that really stands up to corporate interests and with our working class neighbors.” Fateh himself accused the party committee of being aligned with Frey supporters and donors, posting a video on social media in which he said, “This is exactly what Minneapolis voters are sick of. The insider games, the backroom decisions and feeling like our voice doesn’t matter in our own city.”
Progressive leaders in Minneapolis and beyond quickly rallied to Fateh’s defense. U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar and a cohort of state lawmakers and city officials released a joint statement condemning the state party’s decision. “A small group of DFL board members, a majority living outside Minneapolis, met privately to overturn the will of Minneapolis delegates who volunteered, organized, and participated in a months-long DFL process. It is inexcusable to overturn the results weeks after the convention because board members did not like the outcome,” they wrote. The group warned that the decision would “undermine the DFL endorsing process going forward and fails to center the will of delegates.”
Unions that had backed Fateh, including SEIU and Unite HERE, called a press conference to voice their anger, underscoring the crucial role labor plays in DFL campaigns. The Minneapolis DFL, for its part, acknowledged the problems with the convention and announced that new mailings of DFL slate information would be temporarily paused, warning of potential confusion as previously printed materials continued circulating.
Meanwhile, Mayor Frey welcomed the revocation, telling reporters, “I’m glad that now, following the revocation of this endorsement, that all of the candidates will get treated equally by the DFL in November. One of the things that really separates us as Democrats is that we recognize when mistakes were made. That’s exactly what happened. I’m appreciative of the state party, that they conducted a thorough investigation that was based not on politics, but on evidence and facts.” Frey also called for a broader conversation about the city’s political processes, arguing that the convention system can be exclusionary to shift workers and parents unable to participate in lengthy proceedings.
The DFL’s investigation found further irregularities, including unsecured check-in sheets vulnerable to tampering and a lack of proper safeguards for ballot ID numbers. The party’s response restored all mayoral candidates’ access to the DFL’s coveted voter database, which had been exclusive to Fateh after his initial endorsement, and required local party officials to submit improvement plans as part of their probation.
The stakes of the dispute are high—not just for Minneapolis, but for the DFL statewide. The 5th Congressional District, which includes the city, delivered 293,000 votes to Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, outpacing other DFL strongholds. If progressive frustration leads to lower turnout or less volunteer enthusiasm, Republicans could seize their first statewide win in two decades. Longtime DFL consultant Jeff Blodgett struck a note of optimism, telling local press, “The stakes in these elections are so high that I don’t think people are going to boycott them due to frustrations with intraparty DFL controversies.” He described Carlbom as a “dynamic chair” guiding a well-funded party with robust off-year organizing.
Yet, the mayoral mess is just one in a string of challenges facing Minnesota Democrats. The party has been rocked by recent scandals, including the felony conviction of a state senator and the assassination of House DFL leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, as well as bitter ideological divides over issues like Israel’s war on Gaza. These tensions echo the party’s national struggles in the late 1960s, when internal rifts and controversial conventions led to a period of Republican dominance.
As Minneapolis heads toward a mayoral race without a DFL-endorsed candidate for the first time in memory, the party’s ability to bridge its divides and restore confidence in its processes may determine not just the outcome in the city, but the shape of Minnesota’s political landscape for years to come.
