I’m happy to bring you another pretty quick one. The tl;dr is to vote for incumbent Elliott Payne, but you can read the whole thing and it won’t take long.
Elliott Payne (DFL-endorsed, incumbent)
Brian Strahan
Edwin B. Fruit
Earlier in his campaign, Brian Strahan was backed by the (landlord-funded Frey superpac) “We Love Minneapolis,” which spent around $10K ahead of the caucuses/convention. He went on to lose endorsement on the first ballot by a landslide, 82%-17% or 178-36 in terms of actual votes, which means he spent $279 per supporter at the convention.
Which is even funnier given that he doesn’t live in the ward. Brian wrote in to say that he does in fact live in the ward; he moved on August 1st. (He also wanted to note that he lived very close to the ward boundary and only had to move three blocks.) He voted in Ward 3 in the SD 60 special election in January 2025, and he was a Ward 3 delegate in 2023 and 2017.
I got asked last weekend (I was doing a “politics hour” at a local SF convention) about the problem of politicians getting doxxed. I said that I don’t know how to solve this problem; on one hand, in the wake of a political assassination, I have a lot of sympathy for candidates and politicians who do not want their home address to be easy-to-find public information. But on the other hand, we have a real problem with people running for office in districts and wards where they don’t live, especially if they’re wealthy enough to just rent another apartment and pretend they live in it (or if they’re landlords who can pretend to live in one of their vacant properties). Anyway, Brian Strahan either doesn’t live in Ward 1, or committed voter fraud by voting in Ward 3 earlier this year (ETA: as noted above, he moved August 1st) and possibly this is why “All of Mpls,” the other landlord-and-developer-funded conservative superPAC that backs Frey and is trying to get him a more conservative City Council withdrew their endorsement in the Ward 1 race. (ETA: they now list him as an endorsed candidate.)
Edwin B. Fruit is the Socialist Workers Party candidate, which means that instead of having his own website, he links to “The Militant,” where you can go over and read their claim that the Gaza genocide is a “slander” promoted by the “liberal bourgeois media.” Other than that: Edwin ran for this seat in 2021, and has run for office in Iowa (for US House in 2002) and in Seattle (for City Council in 2013, as a write-in). He was party to a lawsuit in Maryland in 1989 challenging filing fees for ballot access. I would not vote for him for anything.
Elliott is endorsed by the DFL and by basically every progressive group in the city. He’s been a major advocate for transit and for police reform, and has passed a number of tenant protections, like extending the pre-eviction notice period from 14 days to 30. He also holds regular “community office hours,” where constituents can come chat with him in person. I think Elliott Payne is pretty great and I would absolutely vote for him.
I have a new book coming out next June! This one is not YA; it’s a near-future thriller about an obstetrician who gets kidnapped by a cult because they want someone on site to deliver babies. You can pre-order it right now if you want.
I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi but instead encourage people who want to reward all my hard work to donate to fundraisers. This year I’m fundraising for YouthLink. YouthLink is a Minneapolis nonprofit that helps youth (ages 16-24) who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. (Here’s their website.) I have seen some of the work they do and been really impressed. (An early donor to the fundraiser added a comment: “YouthLink was incredible instrumental in my assistance of a friend to escape a bad family situation in Florida with little more than a computer and a state ID. Thanks to YouthLink and their knowledge of resources my friend was able to get a mailing address (which was essential in getting a debit card and formal identification documents), healthcare, hot meals, an internship at a local company, and even furniture for their new apartment.” — That is exactly the sort of thing I’m talking about!)
I set up a fundraiser with a specific goal mainly because seeing the money raised helps motivate me. (Having external motivation helps! This is a lot of work.)
Will Tell Stories For Food 