WASHINGTON (AP) — The two-term mayor of Minneapolis who led the city during the murder of George Floyd is seeking reelection Tuesday against more than a dozen challengers, including a democratic socialist advocating for a change to the “status quo.”
Beyond the mayoral race, voters will fill two vacancies in state Senate districts — one seat previously held by a Democrat who resigned after a burglary conviction, the other by a Republican who died in office.
Democrats currently hold a one-seat majority in the chamber.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, is one of 15 candidates on the ballot. His best-funded and highest-profile challenger is state Sen. Omar Fateh, who describes himself as a democratic socialist.
Minneapolis implemented ranked choice voting in 2009, allowing voters to choose up to three candidates in order of preference on their ballot. If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the candidates with the weakest performance are dropped — including the candidate with the lowest number of first-choice rankings and those with no mathematical path to win. The votes from those eliminated candidates are reallocated to voters’ next-highest choices. That process continues until a candidate receives 50% of the vote.
Frey has been the top fundraiser in the race and has support from a political action committee that is funding digital ads criticizing Fateh. Frey also has backing from Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Fateh has framed his campaign as a fight against the "status quo” and asked his supporters to rank DeWayne Davis and Jazz Hampton as their two other top choices. All three are running as Democrats. Fateh has been endorsed by Rep. Ilhan Omar, who represents Minneapolis in Congress.
Fateh, the son of Somali immigrants, could make inroads with the city’s sizable Somali American population in neighborhoods like Cedar-Riverside. His Senate district includes the heart of the city’s Somali American community.
Every mayoral race since 2013 has gone to at least a second round of ranked-voting. In 2021, Frey won after two rounds of tabulation, in a reelection race that put a spotlight on his leadership after Floyd's killing. In 2017, when Frey ousted an incumbent, it took six rounds of tabulation. In 2013, it took 34 rounds to declare Betsy Hodges the winner of the mayoral race.
District 47 is vacant after its former senator, Democrat Nicole Mitchell, resigned. She was convicted of burglary for breaking into her estranged stepmother’s Detroit Lakes home.
The Democratic nominee, state Rep. Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger, won the nomination with 82% of the vote. The Republican nominee is Dwight Dorau, who ran unopposed in the primary. Then-Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris carried the district with about 60% of the vote in 2024 and Mitchell last won with 59% of the vote.
Most of the suburban district falls in Washington County, with a small portion stretching southward into Ramsey County. In Minnesota, each state Senate district is divided into two state House districts, and Hemmingsen-Jaeger represents half of District 47 in the state House.
Hemmingsen-Jaeger’s House district includes parts of Maplewood and Woodbury. She won her seat in 2022 and won her 2024 reelection with about 60% of the vote.
State Sen. Bruce Anderson, a Republican who was first elected to the Legislature in 1994, died in July, prompting a special election. Most of District 29 falls into Wright County, with smaller slices of the district stretching into Meeker and Hennepin counties.
The Republican nominee, Michael Holmstrom Jr., won the August primary with 73% of the vote. He’s campaigned as a Buffalo business owner with a background in Republican activism, including opposition to abortion. He faces Democrat Louis McNutt, who ran unopposed in the primary. Past results indicate that the district favors Republicans. Anderson won his last several reelection campaigns with upwards of 60% of the vote, and Republican Donald Trump carried the district in 2024 with about 65%.
Here’s a look at what to expect on Tuesday:
Polls close at 8 p.m. local time, which is 9 p.m. ET.
The AP will provide vote results and declare winners in the Minneapolis mayoral race and in the two state Senate special elections. Municipal elections will be held for local offices across the state, such as the Minneapolis City Council, St. Paul mayor and Duluth School Board, but those contests will not be included in AP’s vote tabulation.
Any eligible voter in Minneapolis may participate in the mayoral general election. Eligible voters in state Senate districts 29 and 47 may participate in the special elections in their district.
As of June, there were about 253,000 registered voters in Minneapolis. In the 2021 mayoral election, turnout was about 54% of registered voters. About 20% of ballots in that election were cast before Election Day.
As of Oct. 28, a total of 15,525 ballots had been cast in Minneapolis before Election Day.
Both state Senate Districts 29 and 47 had about 59,000 registered voters as of June. About 68% of registered voters in District 29 voted in the 2022 general election, with about 16% of those voters casting ballots early or by absentee. In District 47, turnout in 2022 was about 69% of registered voters, with about 32% of voters casting ballots early or by absentee.
In the 2024 presidential election, the AP first reported results in Hennepin County at 9:34 p.m. ET, or 34 minutes after polls closed. The election night tabulation ended at 2:59 a.m. ET with more than 99% of total votes counted.
In the 2022 general election, the AP first reported results in state Senate District 29 at 10:10 p.m. ET and in District 47 at 10:49 p.m. ET.
Vote tabulation in District 29 stopped for the night at 1:22 a.m. ET with about 91% of total votes counted. In District 47, the election night vote tabulation stopped at 12:10 a.m. ET with nearly 100% of the vote counted.
As of Tuesday, there will be 364 days until the 2026 midterm elections and 1,099 days until the 2028 general election.
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Associated Press writer Robert Yoon contributed to this report.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2025 election at https://apnews.com/projects/election-results-2025/
