This is the seat currently held by Omar Fateh, and he has two people running against him. On the ballot:
Brenda Short
Omar Fateh
Jeanelle Austin
Brenda Short ran for Mayor of Minneapolis in 2025 and does not appear to have updated her website much since then. (She changed the header, but “why am I running” leads to a page where she talks about how Minneapolis needs strong leadership (and this is true across her site, she has mostly swapped out “mayor” for “State Senate” and the 2025 dates for the 2026 dates, but she doesn’t seem to have changed much else.) Brenda is not a serious candidate (she’s the person who fired her campaign manager by giving an interview to a newspaper and waiting for the campaign manager to read the story). If you want to replace Omar Fateh, vote for Jeanelle.
Omar Fateh also ran for Mayor of Minneapolis in 2025 but with a much more serious campaign (and, no surprise here, his website now is specifically for his re-election campaign.) His legislative accomplishments include the statewide minimum wage for rideshare drivers (an 11th-hour compromise that kept the services available in Minneapolis while also ensuring that drivers were paid something closer to a fair wage), an exemption to drug paraphernalia laws for fentanyl test strips, and the North Star Promise scholarships. This spring, he introduced a bill (along with Jamie Long and Bobby Joe Champion) to allow Minnesotans to sue ICE for violating their rights; I think this passed in the Senate but died in committee in the House because the Democrats lacked a majority there. Fateh is an outstanding organizer, a good listener, and genuinely really effective in the legislature. I am disappointed that he lost to Frey because I think he’d also be a much better mayor.
Jeanelle Austin is the executive director of Rise & Remember, a nonprofit that maintains the memorial at George Floyd Square. (They also organize events, and offer guides for people who want to visit, among other things.) She has community service experience and strong progressive values, and iff she were running for an open seat I would probably view her as the obvious pick. But she’s not running for an open seat! She’s running against an incumbent (a young, energetic incumbent who’s done really good work so far and whose constituents have told me he’s responsive to contacts.)
I e-mailed her to ask as tactfully as I could if Omar did something bad and I missed the memo? Her reply:
My reasons for running have nothing to do with my opponents. I am fighting for issues that continue to harm our community that must be addressed at the state level of government. I believe that I will be an effective senator because of my 27 years of leadership experience, cross-cultural communication skills, and community activism. I believe many of the people in our district are in alignment with what my campaign outlines as what we need to begin to thrive—fully funded public education, improved gun laws (although I’ve learned that many neighbors vary on what this looks like), affordable healthcare for all, gainful employment for everyone, and affordable housing. It’s not the “what” that is in question, as much as it is the “how.” And it is not the policy that needs more strategy, it is the working with people. Though we in D62 need and want something, getting that something agreed upon and passed by other Minnesotans with different lived experiences is the challenge. I have the skills, experience, and imagination to serve effectively with my experience working with people. I feel called to lead through the Minnesota Senate in this next season of my life. I would be honored to be put forth by my neighbors in D62 to do so.
If you’re running for an open seat, I think that’s a reasonable way to frame it, but if you’re running in a primary against a fellow progressive Democrat, I need you (or someone else!) to be able to tell me why that person needs to be replaced. Being a state legislator is a job that comes with a learning curve: replacing a sitting legislator means a new person has to learn to do the job, re-establish the relationships, and start building up seniority. This is clearly worthwhile when someone’s been in their seat so long they’ve fossilized, or they’ve had a major scandal. I backed a prior challenger to Omar two years ago because he’d had some scandals; he got that situation straightened out and has not had any issues I’ve heard about since. (If anything, he seems to have learned from this to be extremely careful with campaign finance paperwork, etc., which is good. That’s a good thing for people to be extremely careful with.) Four years ago (note: Senate usually gets 4-year terms but they all had to run at the two-year mark because of redistricting) I backed Omar over the incumbent he was running against because he’d had a scandal.
I’ve asked around and no one seems to know of any current scandals and I’ve been told Jeanelle likes Omar fine, she just also very much wants to serve in the legislature and doesn’t want to wait for an open seat.
I like and respect Jeanelle and I hope she runs for an open seat in the future. I would vote for Omar Fateh. If you dislike Omar Fateh for whatever reason, you can definitely vote for Jeanelle; she seems pretty great. This whole race is honestly kind of perplexing.
This seems like a good year to fundraise for a trans nonprofit, so I’m fundraising this year for TIGERRS. I don’t have a Patreon, and a fundraiser lets me see in a tangible way that people value my work, which is really helpful as a motivator. (This project is a lot of work.)
I also have a new book! Obstetrix is about an obstetrician who gets kidnapped by a cult because they want someone on hand to deliver their babies; it’s a story about enduring, surviving, and not giving up. You can buy it anywhere fine books are sold, and Uncle Hugo’s, Moon Palace, and Dreamhaven all (probably) have signed copies. (I also signed copies at Next Chapter, and will be making my way to other bookstores as time allows!)
