Frey Wins a Third Term as Mayor as Council Map Is Redrawn Around Him

Jacob Frey won a third term as mayor of Minneapolis in the Nov. 4, 2025 election, defeating state Sen. Omar Fateh in a ranked-choice contest. Frey took 42% of first-choice votes to Fateh's 32%, and after lower-finishing candidates were eliminated he reached 50.03% — 73,723 final-round votes to Fateh's 65,377. The narrow margin underscored that his support, like Ward 7's, is genuinely contested.

Fateh, a democratic socialist, had briefly held the DFL endorsement after the party's July convention, but the state DFL revoked it on Aug. 21, 2025, citing problems in the convention's voting process.

The win extends a tenure defined by friction with the council's left. While Frey held the mayor's office, the progressive bloc on the 13-member council lost the veto-proof majority it had used to override him, most visibly with the defeat of Ward 7's Katie Cashman by Elizabeth Shaffer. The bloc kept a working majority but can no longer reliably override a veto.

That combination set up a different dynamic. Rather than the prior term's veto-and-override fight — the council overrode Frey to pass the 2025 budget — the roughly $2 billion 2026 budget came together as a negotiated deal between the Frey administration and senior council leaders, adopted in December 2025.

For Lowry Hill, the Wedge and the lakes neighborhoods, the most concrete effect is on the budget and policing, where mayor and council have clashed hardest, with negotiated outcomes more likely than lopsided votes. Frey's administration also continues to run the departments residents deal with daily — public works, regulatory services, police. The first real test is the next budget cycle: Frey delivers his budget address in August, the council amends it through the fall, and residents can comment at public hearings before adoption in December.