Minnesota Gets Its Own Zohran Mamdani

Minneapolis has become the next major American city facing down the prospect of an openly socialist mayor as state Senator Omar Fateh looks to match Zohran Mamdani’s far-left extremism.

Like Mamdani, Fateh has risen from relative obscurity to become the talk of the political world in a matter of weeks. His campaign received another boost on Monday when the Minneapolis Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party endorsed him over incumbent Democrat Mayor Jacob Frey. That stunning and highly unusual move comes as a particular shock given that just a few years ago, Frey was heralded as a progressive hero for his embrace of the Defund the Police and Black Lives Matter movements.

The 35-year-old Fateh is the son of Somali immigrants and the first Muslim to serve in the Minnesota Senate. Although he announced his bid to unseat Frey in December, his campaign began gaining more attention following the rise of fellow self-described “democratic socialist” Zohran Mamdani in New York City.

Fateh’s platform is in some respects even more radical than Mamdani’s. He has promised to implement widespread rent control, raise the minimum wage to $20, ban the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, and “divert” up to half of all 911 calls to social workers.

Fateh’s record in the Minnesota Senate suggests he is fully prepared to follow through on those far-left pledges. One of Fateh’s signature legislative initiatives was a campaign to make illegal aliens eligible for taxpayer-funded benefits. As chair of the Senate higher-education committee, he authored the North Star Promise, a program that offers tuition-free college to households earning under $80,000 – regardless of immigration status. The Trump administration is now suing the state over that policy.

Fateh has also described American law enforcement as “systemically white supremacist.” He backed the failed 2021 charter amendment to replace MPD with a Department of Public Safety, a proposal voters overwhelmingly rejected. His campaign website calls for disciplinary action against officers who cooperate with ICE or other federal authorities.

His economic platform includes raising the city minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2028, freezing rent, and lobbying the state legislature to pass a local income tax on high earners. He also supports implementing carbon fees and expanding city funding for progressive causes, including the “Trans Equity Summit” and housing aid for LGBTQ+ residents and racial minorities, which his campaign identifies as necessary for “economic justice.”

Perhaps most controversially, Fateh does not even appear to view serving his would-be constituents as his primary responsibility. Despite being born and raised in the United States, Fateh has repeatedly referred to Somalia as his “home,” and has suggested that his top concern is delivering for the people there.

Like Mamdani, Fateh has also sought to carve out a lane for himself by going all-in on being part of the progressive “resistance” to the Trump administration. In a recent campaign video, Fateh vowed to “protect all of our communities from Donald Trump” by cutting ties between MPD and ICE, “whether it’s for an immigration raid or not.”

The mayoral election is scheduled for November 4. Minneapolis does not hold traditional primary elections for its mayoral (or City Council) races. Instead, it uses ranked-choice voting (RCV) in a single general election. Voters rank up to three candidates; if no one achieves a majority on the first count, the lowest-ranked candidates are eliminated and their votes redistributed

Fateh is betting his progressive base can carry him past Frey, whom Fateh has cast as out of touch with working families, arguing that “nothing really changed” after the death of George Floyd.

Frey, by contrast, has pitched himself as a stabilizing force, campaigning on rebuilding the MPD (despite the fact that he openly supported the “Defund the Police” movement in 2020), expanding affordable housing, and supporting local businesses — a message his campaign has branded “responsible leadership.”

The fact that Frey is now viewed as the “moderate” candidate in the race is a testament to how extreme Fateh truly is – and how radical the Democrat Party has become. Frey is the same mayor who knelt before Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020, then stood by and watched as rioters burned down his city. He flirted with “Defund the Police” until it became political suicide, and allowed a police precinct to burn to the ground while doing little to protect residents or restore order.

Omar Fateh represents the next phase of that drift. He’s not some fringe candidate — he’s a sitting state senator backed by institutional support and a well-organized progressive machine. What’s happening in Minneapolis is not a one-off. It’s a warning sign. The next generation of Democrat leaders isn’t just dabbling in extremism — they are defined by it.

The rise of Mamdani and Fateh shows that, rather than learning from the devastation caused by progressive policies, Democrats have doubled down on them. From New York to Minnesota, their answer to urban dysfunction isn’t reform, it’s escalation. Defund the Police becomes “abolish ICE.” Affordable housing becomes rent freezes and wealth redistribution. Race and gender quotas replace public safety and basic governance. These aren’t policies that will help cities thrive.

In 2024, voters across the country sent a clear message: they are tired of chaos, dysfunction, and performative radicalism. They want safe neighborhoods, affordable living, and a government that works for the people.

The Minneapolis mayoral election is more than a local race. It’s a referendum on whether Democrats are willing to break from the destructive trajectory they’ve been on for decades. Cities like Minneapolis, once engines of American prosperity, have been governed exclusively by the left — and the results speak for themselves: higher crime, economic stagnation, failing schools, and broken infrastructure.

Now comes the moment of truth. Omar Fateh is not offering change. He’s offering more of the same — only worse. Voters in Minneapolis have a choice. They can double down on the ideology that has already brought so much harm to their city, or they can begin the hard work of turning the page.

Sarah Katherine Sisk is a proud Hillsdale College alumna and a master’s student in economics at George Mason University. You can follow her on X @SKSisk76.