Council Loses Its Veto-Proof Majority as Four Newcomers Join

The Minneapolis City Council seated in January 2026 lost the veto-proof majority that defined the prior term. The Nov. 4, 2025 election returned most incumbents but added four new members — Pearll Warren in Ward 5, Elizabeth Shaffer in Ward 7, Soren Stevenson in Ward 8 and Jamison Whiting in Ward 11 — leaving the progressive bloc with a working majority of about seven seats but short of the nine votes needed to override the mayor.

The most visible change for the lakes-and-hill neighborhoods came in Ward 7, where Shaffer, backed by the Frey-aligned committee All of Mpls, unseated one-term incumbent Katie Cashman.

Minneapolis operates under a strong-mayor framework in which the mayor can veto council actions. A veto-proof majority — nine of the 13 members — lets the council override those vetoes. The clearest example of that power came in December 2024, when the council overrode Frey's veto to pass the 2025 budget. The progressive-aligned members still hold a numerical majority and can pass measures the mayor does not veto; what they lost is the margin that made his veto nearly irrelevant.

The 2026 budget showed the new dynamic. Instead of a veto-and-override fight, it came together as a negotiated deal, with a compromise brokered between the Frey administration and senior council leaders including Budget Chair and Vice President Aisha Chughtai of Ward 10. The council adopted the roughly $2 billion budget in December 2025.

For residents of Lowry Hill, the Wedge and the lakes neighborhoods, the change is less about ideology than about process: contested questions like the property-tax levy, police staffing and housing rules are now more likely to be settled by compromise than imposed by one side. Residents can weigh in at the council's Thursday meetings, in committee, or through their council member.