KYLE STOKES: Good to be with you, Nina.
NINA MOINI: So, like I mentioned there in the introduction, the Minneapolis DFL has not endorsed a candidate for mayor since 2009. What do you make of this, Kyle? Does this endorsement carry much weight?
KYLE STOKES: Well, it’s definitely a meaningful endorsement. You mentioned the historic nature of it. But in addition to it sort of being an unusual step for a party, where most of the mayoral elections come down to which Democrat is the favorite of a heavily Democratic city, it does carry a lot of weight for the Democratic Party, the DFL party, to put its brand behind a candidate. And those candidates get exclusive access to the database that is the gold standard for candidates running in a deep blue city like Minneapolis.
Now, how much stock to put in the weight of this endorsement? This has made a lot bigger difference in city council races than it has in mayoral races in recent years. And you see that across the ideological spectrum. You see folks who are more aligned with the Democratic socialists side of the party, as well as more moderate or centrist Democrat candidates also getting the party’s endorsement at the city council level. In either ideological extreme, or end of that poll, those candidates tend to win. So if you believe what happens at the city council level maybe that carries through with Fateh. But it’s a much bigger electorate in November than just the small group of people that made this decision on Saturday.
NINA MOINI: Sure. That’s really good context. Thank you. Tell us a little bit, Kyle, about state Senator Omar Fateh. His platform, why he’s interested in being mayor of Minneapolis.
KYLE STOKES: Well, state Senator Omar Fateh has become the favorite of the left wing of the party. He is a Democratic socialist. He was elected to the state senate. And he kind of has come in with a lot of ideas that would pull the city to the left. On issues like housing, he supports rent control. When I’ve talked to him, he talks about taking a much tougher line on things like police reform. He’s been very critical of how not only Mayor Frey has handled police matters in the city, but also it sounds like he would take a tougher line with some of the day-to-day management of the police department, with the Police Chief.
And his candidacy has attracted the most interest of a wide field of candidates–
NINA MOINI: Sure.
KYLE STOKES: –who have really questioned the culture and the decision-making process that has taken place at City Hall under Mayor Frey’s leadership. And we saw a slate of candidates go into the day yesterday looking– or on Saturday, rather, looking to capitalize on that and take that frustration among a certain class of the party and parlay that into the endorsement. And Fateh emerged among those three serious challengers. Fateh emerged the strongest.
NINA MOINI: And so talking now about the Frey campaign, Mayor Jacob Frey’s campaign, what has their reaction been?
KYLE STOKES: Well, first of all, they do not accept that the endorsement was actually handed out on a valid basis.
NINA MOINI: Oh. So Saturday was a very chaotic day. It was a drawn out from– I got to the arena at Target Center at 9:30 in the morning. It was supposed to gavel in at 10:00 AM, but things didn’t actually get started until 11:30 in the morning. And then the first mayoral ballot didn’t take place until 5:00. The Frey campaign doesn’t even believe that the party counted all the ballots in the first round, and the only round of mayoral balloting that actually took place where actual paper ballots were cast. The party disputes this, says the campaign is just simply their math is wrong.
But in the end, the endorsement was actually handed out after the Frey campaign had quit the convention. Their supporters walked out. And delegates that remained essentially raise their hands. They sort of raised up their delegate badges. And the chair, under modified rules at the time, declared that was the endorsement that was valid. So they don’t accept the procedure of it. Now, the broader political context is the Frey campaign never expected to win the endorsement. I think they were hoping to block Fateh from the endorsement. And so this is a setback, in that sense. But I think either way, the reality for Frey campaign that they’re banking on is that much broader electorate is going to be much more favorable to him than this smaller collection of the most interested people in the party.
NINA MOINI: Kyle Stokes, thank you so much for being there so other people didn’t have to on Saturday and bringing us your reporting. We really appreciate you.
KYLE STOKES: Thank you very much.
NINA MOINI: That was Kyle Stokes. He’s going to be keeping an eye on this election. Reporter for Axios Twin Cities.