The Minnesota DFL Party has vacated Sen. Omar Fateh’s endorsement for Minneapolis mayor following substantial voting irregularities at the city convention in July.
State party officials announced Thursday they found “substantial failures” in the Minneapolis DFL’s endorsement process, including a malfunctioning electronic voting system that produced inaccurate vote tallies and wrongly eliminated mayoral candidate DeWayne Davis from the second round despite meeting the threshold to advance.
“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,” said DFL Party Chairman Richard Carlbom.
The decision came after Mayor Jacob Frey’s campaign requested an expedited review, citing multiple problems with the convention’s voting procedures. Among the issues identified were delegate access problems, the loss of a credentials book, and unauthorized access to the master credentials list by non-committee members, including campaign staff.
The state party has barred another endorsing convention from taking place, meaning no candidate may claim DFL endorsement in the upcoming mayoral race. The Minneapolis DFL was also placed on two-year probation.
The Minnesota state Democrat party has REVERSED its endorsement of Omar Fateh for mayor of Minneapolis after discovering — or rather, being forced to admit — severe voting irregularities at the city’s Democrat convention.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 22, 2025
Problems included major voting machine malfunctions, as… pic.twitter.com/5uBMZl4Jok
Fateh’s campaign called the decision “disenfranchisement of thousands of Minneapolis caucus-goers” and said they are exploring an appeal. The campaign alleged the challenge was pushed by “party insiders and establishment Democrats” threatened by their anti-corporate message.
Frey praised the state party’s decision, saying he was “glad that this inaccurate and obviously flawed process was set aside.”
The 2025 Minneapolis mayoral election between incumbent Frey and state Sen. Fateh will be conducted via ranked-choice voting on November 4, with early voting beginning September 19.
