Omar Fateh dubbed ‘The Mamdani of Minneapolis’ in mayoral election race

The Minnesota Star Tribune is highlighting Minnesota’s Democratic Farmer-Labor party endorsement of state Sen. Omar Fateh for Minneapolis mayor over incumbent Jacob Frey, and asking if Fateh will become “The Mamdani of Minneapolis.”

“Three years ago, Minnesota Sen. Omar Fateh was in the hot seat, sitting through a Senate ethics investigation into an alleged quid pro quo with a Somali news outlet,” Minneapolis City Hall reporter Deena Winter wrote in a Tuesday article entitled, “The Mamdani of Minneapolis? Omar Fateh brings the left’s insurgency to mayor’s race.” 

“On Saturday, Fateh was riding high, as Minneapolis Democrats endorsed him to be the city’s next mayor over incumbent two-term Mayor Jacob Frey,” Winter wrote. 

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“Now the race begins in earnest, reflecting a conflict that’s been brewing for years,” she continued. “A comparatively moderate Democratic mayor against a rising young progressive who’s part of the ascendant Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) wing of the party — an election that is likely to draw national attention and money while potentially upending the power dynamic in City Hall.” 

Fateh, the son of Somali immigrants, says on his campaign biography page that he is the first Somali American and the first Muslim to be in the Minnesota Senate. He was elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2020 and is running on raising the city’s minimum wage, increasing the supply of affordable housing, and fighting to stop what he calls the “cycle of the MPD’s violence and brutality.”

Winter likened Fateh to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary in the city’s race for mayor. 

Mamdani, a self-avowed democratic socialist, espouses such policies as government-run grocery stores and widespread rent freezes.

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“Fateh has drawn national attention since Mamdani’s win, with some calling him the ‘Mamdani of Minneapolis,’” Winter wrote. 

In her piece, Winter noted that Fateh “supports a ban on the police interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” and highlighted that he “called a June federal drug raid in south Minneapolis ‘blatant fascism,’ accused MPD of cooperating with ICE, and said it would be ‘unconscionable’ for police to help with crowd control at an ICE raid.” 

Winter reported that Frey’s campaign is challenging the results of the DFL endorsement, saying they are “questioning why only 578 votes were recorded on the first ballot, even though over 1,000 delegates and alternates were checked in.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Fateh and Frey’s campaign for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.