Tag Archives: Omar Fateh

Election 2026: All the State Legislative Races in Minneapolis and Saint Paul

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The tl;dr here: just vote for the DFLer in all of these. My least-favorite Democrats are all still better than Republicans.

State Senate District 59

Bobby Joe Champion is running unopposed.

State Senate District 60

Senator Doron Clark (originally elected in the special election in 2025, after Senator Kari Dziedzic died of cancer) is running for re-election. Back during the Special Primary, people described him over and over as the kind of guy who shows up, and he’s continued showing up since getting elected. Republican Abigail Wolters is running against him again. I e-mailed her when she ran in 2022 asking who she thought won the 2020 election; she did not reply. She wants school vouchers, she wants to “eliminate unfunded mandates” which generally means special ed, and she scaremongers about crime. Vote for Doron Clark.

State Senate District 61

Scott Dibble is running unopposed.

State Senate District 62

Omar Fateh had an opponent in the primary but is unopposed in the general.

State Senate District 63

Zaynab Mohammed was elected in 2022. Her website has a lot of focus on affordable housing. Diane Napper ran for House in 2024. She is married to Trumpy weirdo Shawn Holster, who ran for this senate seat in 2022. Her website talks about how bad the schools are (I assume she’s pro-voucher but she doesn’t say), how bad crime is, and how bad taxes are. I e-mailed her in 2024 to ask who she thought won the 2020 Presidential election and she did not reply. Vote for Zaynab Mohammed.

State Senate District 64

Erin Murphy is my State Senator and is terrific. She’s probably best known for her work on health care for all. Robert Bushard is an elderly crank who ran for Ward 4 City Council in 2023 and bragged about personally clearing a homeless encampment; referred to the murder of George Floyd as “the death of a career criminal;” scaremongered about LGBTQ+ people; suggested banning bail funds; and flirted with election denial. His current website calls Tim Walz “Governor Runaway Tampon Timmy Awolz.” Vote for Erin Murphy.

State Senate District 65

Senator Sandy Pappas is not running again, so this is an open seat. The DFLer running is Robyn Gully, a West St. Paul City Council Rep who has spent years working in labor organizing. She sounds great. The woman she beat in the primary, who failed to respond to my question about her stances on abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, Natasha Bennett, is running a write-in campaign. There is also a Republican in the race, Chris Rocco, who apparently is on the ballot as “_Rocco” (the underscore is included on the ballot). His absolute jaw-dropping awfulness is summed up pretty neatly by the fact that he’s the guy woxesho proposed the “moment of silence” for convicted murderer Derek Chauvin at the GOP State Convention (the motion passed and they did, in fact, hold a moment of silence for a murderer; bear that mind the next time Republicans yap about being tough on crime.) He’s also been putting campaign stickers on people’s mailboxes (which is illegal) and in the discussion thread about that, someone alleged that he sexually assaulted them. None of the Republicans running are good; Rocco is a dumpster fire in a toxic waste dump, and the more you look the worse he gets. Vote for Robyn Gully.

State Senate District 66

Clare Oumou Verbeten is the DFLer who is just finishing her first term. Her website calls out “fighting fascism” as her top issue. Her Republican opponent, Kathleen Bart, is running on hating trans girls specifically, massively reducing family and medical leave, and getting rid of universal free lunches (“Why are taxpayers paying for wealthy children’s meals?” Well, for one thing, because there are no wealthy children. There are children with wealthy parents, and some wealthy parents are jerks. We can collect from the wealthy parents by raising taxes on them!) Vote for Clare.

State Senate District 67

Foung Hawj has been in the State Senate since 2013. His website highlights the rental assistance passed in the legislature to help people struggling during and after Metro Surge. His Republican opponent, Toby Hesselgrave, has no website and has responded to no questionnaires but I did find his Facebook. It’s a mix of right-wing AI slop, transphobia, racism, classic cars (apparently he does classic car restoration — whether as a business or a hobby, I’m not sure) and insisting that Katie Zacharia is a lawyer even though she never passed the bar. Vote for Foung Hawj.

State House District 59A

Fue Lee is unopposed.

State House District 59B

Esther Agbaje was elected in 2019. Her website highlights first-time buyer help and tenant protections (especially during the pandemic) as well as authoring the CROWN Act, barring hairstyle-based discrimination against Black people in schools and workplaces. (I think it actually bans hairstyle-based discrimination against anyone, but this comes up a lot more for Black people.) Her Republican opponent is Kenneth Smoron, a Log Cabin Republican (which is to say, he’s gay but apparently hates taxes more than he likes having rights.) Vote for Esther Agbaje.

State House District 60A

The incumbent is Sydney Jordan, who originally won in a special election in early 2020. Her website highlights a focus on education, from preschool through college. Her Republican opponent John Holmberg has what looks to me like an AI-generated image of Northeast on the front page of his website. He offers almost zero biographical information (he and his wife Mary have lived in Northeast for 30 years. That’s it: nothing about what he does for a living, what his civic involvement has been, etc.) and I found no social media. He highlights school vouchers and longer sentences for criminals as his main issues. I e-mailed to ask him for an example of an unfunded mandate that “eats up school budgets” and he did not reply. Vote for Sydney Jordan.

State House District 60B

Mohamud Noor was challenged in the primary but is unopposed in the general.

State House District 61A

Katie Jones is unopposed.

State House District 61B

Jamie Long is unopposed.

State House District 62A

Aisha Gomez is unopposed.

State House District 62B

Anquam Mahamoud is just finishing her first term in the State Legislature. Her website highlights her commitment to health care and bodily autonomy. Bob Sullentrop is a perennial candidate who has run for Park Board (2017) (on a “prioritize the golf courses” platform), Ward 8 City Council (2021), Ward 8 City Council again (2023) (those runs were on a “I hate bike lanes and also any steps towards pedestrian safety that inconvenience me in my car” platform — seriously, he complained about speed limits), Minnesota House 62B (2024), and Ward 8 City Council again (2025) on an “I hate the DSA” platform. Vote for Anquam Mahamoud.

State House District 63A

Samantha Sencer-Mura has been in the legislature since 2023. She’s an educator, writer, and activist, and she highlights education and climate justice on her website. Kyle Bragg is running against her. Kyle Bragg has run repeatedly but this is the first time he’s ever had a website. It doesn’t help much. (He says he wants safer streets, better schools, and more government integrity, but with zero detail on what he means or what he’d do.) Vote for Samantha.

State House District 63B

Emma Greenman was first elected in 2020. Her website highlights legislation she passed banning junk fees, strengthening Minnesota Care, and defending voting rights. Her opponent, Nick Peters, has a website that highlights the old flag and says he’s trying to raise enough money by July 20th to qualify for a public subsidy. Vote for Emma.

State House District 64A

Meg Luger-Nikolai is unopposed.

State House District 64B

Dave Pinto is unopposed.

State House District 65A

Samakab Hussein is unopposed.

State House District 65B

Sebastian Ellefson was challenged in the primary but is unopposed in the general.

State House District 66A

Leigh Finke was first elected in 2022. She’s a trans woman who highlights civil rights and racial justice on her website. Her Republican opponent, Mark Born, added a sign to his signs saying “Normal Guy, Normal Name,” which several DFL State Senators have noted is both a transphobic statement and either a xenophobic or antisemitic swipe at Leigh’s last name. He highlights his hostility toward trans girls on his website. Vote for Leigh Finke.

State House District 66B

Athena Hollins was first elected in 2020. Her website highlights public safety, affordable housing, and climate justice. (Note: her public safety section talks about re-thinking how we respond to problems that don’t actually require armed intervention, and responding vigorously to police misconduct.) Her opponent, Mary O’Neal, says on her website, “Together, I am focused on issues that matter to Minnesotans: Voter ID, School choice, Restoring the original state flag.” Mary also filed a groundless complaint against the DFL after the 2024 election because when she went to early vote at the Plato building, she saw someone with a Kamala Harris sign tucked under one arm standing in the parking lot having a conversation. You are required to keep campaign materials 100 feet from the polling place; this was well over 100 feet and this woman was not holding the sign up or campaigning. Vote for Athena Hollins.

State House District 67A

Liz Lee was first elected in 2022. Her website highlights education, child care, and infrastructure issues, including transit. Her Republican opponent Jennifer McPherson offers a grab bag of random grievances but honestly doesn’t sound like she’d be especially comfortable at a Republican convention. Her current campaign Facebook page includes reshares of Republican complaints about taxes and fraud but also an Angela Davis quote about being anti-racist, a Malcolm X quote about being fooled into hating your fellow oppressed people, and objections to data centers. That’s all within the last day.

Jennifer has also run for school board twice, in 2019 and 2021. Her school board race Facebook is also still up and if you scroll down a bit you’ll find a whole lot of pro-remote-learning posts from early 2022 (see also here and here). (Schools had mostly gone back to in-person in the fall of 2021, but late 2021 / early 2022 was when Omicron wave hit.) There’s also a “lock him up” post that’s clearly referring to Trump, and a re-share from Gender Inclusive Schools. Her current website talks about trans kids and sports and I’m just going to quote verbatim because I am honestly not sure what she’s saying here: “Sports for all genders. MN has to be the leader and allow all children to play sports while following federal laws creating transgender sports teams we are ensuring equality for all while taking the target off children so they can be children and showcase their talents.” She also posted about this issue on her current campaign Facebook: “I will fight for ALL CHILDREN TO FREELY PLAY SPORTS IN MN!! TRUMP WILL NOT TAKEAWAY FREEDOM FROM OUR MN CHILDREN.” She also in that post describes herself as an Independent, despite running as a Republican.

Anyway, I’ll note that the area Republicans seem to be largely ignoring Jennifer. Vote for Liz Lee!

State House District 67B

Jay Xiong is unopposed.

And with that, I think I’m done with this year’s election blogging? (Unless I forgot something. I have been known to miss a race.)

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 raised $7,230 during primary season so I’ve raised the goal.

I also have a new book out! 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 I’ve been doing my best to keep Uncle Hugo’s, Moon Palace, and Dreamhaven Books in signed copies.

Primary Election 2026: MN Senate, District 62

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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

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

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

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!)

Election 2025: Minneapolis Mayoral Race (the four contenders)

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There are fifteen people running for Minneapolis mayor. You only have to worry about four of them, and this post will talk about those four. If you want to know more about all the others, that is in a separate post.

The four candidates who might actually win in November:

Jacob Frey (incumbent)
Omar Fateh
Jazz Hampton
DeWayne Davis

The tl;dr is that my current ranking is (1) DeWayne Davis; (2) Omar Fateh; (3) Jazz Hampton. What I would really strongly encourage people to do if they don’t want Jacob but aren’t sure how they feel about the precise order of the challengers is to pick a favorite as soon as possible and donate and doorknock. Four years ago, I got my post up really late, and I was indecisive, and I think I was probably not the only person who got caught up in analysis paralysis. Analysis paralysis that keeps you from donating and volunteering will get you four more years of Jacob Frey! I am here RIGHT NOW, TODAY with information to help you make a decision (which can totally be different from the one I’m making! Get out there and doorknock for Omar Fateh or Jazz Hampton if one of them is your first choice!) Frey is extremely unpopular; the biggest hill to climb for his opponents is name recognition.

I made an effort this month to meet DeWayne Davis, Omar Fateh, and Jazz Hampton in person. I went to a DeWayne Davis meet-and-greet at a park, an Omar Fateh fundraiser, and a Jazz Hampton meet-and-greet at a playground. I asked each of them if they could identify a problem that they thought they could solve as mayor — Minneapolis is facing plenty of problems, some very complicated and some more straightforward, was there any particular problem that they looked at and thought, “make me mayor, and I could fix this one.” I didn’t try to find Jacob to ask this question because he’s been mayor for eight years; he’s had his chance.

Something I found worthwhile was the Mayoral Candidate Q&A from the city DFL convention. There are some challenging and interesting questions. (You can skip 5 seconds at a time with arrow keys if there are candidates you don’t want to hear from.) One caveat is that the video was taken from over to the side and you can’t always tell who’s talking; you have to be able to recognize the candidate’s voices (which mostly I can, but mileage may vary here.)

Cut because the analysis is going to get long!

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Primary Election 2022: Minnesota Senate District 62

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Two years ago, Omar Fateh beat long-time incumbent Jeff Hayden in an upset in the primary (and coasted to victory in the general — the real contest for a Minneapolis legislative seat is almost always in the primary). Here’s my post from two years ago; I endorsed Fateh. To quickly recap: Hayden had been in that seat for quite a while, had been implicated in a small scale financial scandal, and Fateh had done a terrific job organizing and door knocking.

This year, Fateh has an opponent:

Omar Fateh (DFL-endorsed, incumbent)
Shaun Laden

(Cut for length.)

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