Jacob Frey Leads In Minneapolis Mayor Race

MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis residents may not find out who will be their next mayor until later in the week. Current Mayor Jacob Frey is in the lead, but he still needs at least 50 percent of the votes to win, due to the rules of ranked-choice voting.

Sheila Nezhad is in second and Kate Knuth is third.

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Live ballot results

Note: Minneapolis uses ranked-choice voting. A candidate must have 50 percent of votes or more to win.

Updated 11 p.m. Tuesday

These are currently the top three candidates in the lead:

Jacob Frey

• 61,468 votes
• 42.79 percent

Sheila Nezhad

• 30,335 votes
• 21.12%

Kate Knuth

• 26,444 votes
• 18.41 percent

Sixteen different challengers ran to unseat current Frey.

Following the killing of George Floyd and the murder conviction of former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin, crime, police reform, and other public safety-related issues dominated the 2021 campaign.

"Minneapolis has the lowest number of police officers per capita of any major city in the country that I'm aware of," Frey told Patch in a candidate profile.

"We have fewer than half the number of officers of many comparably sized urban centers like Cleveland, Atlanta, and Milwaukee. Simultaneously, we are seeing a spike in certain types of violent crime. This crime spike has multiple causes: deep-seated inequities, a global pandemic, civil unrest, and more. I believe, and the data show, that further defunding or abolishing our police department will not redress these inequalities. Rather, it will accelerate them. And so I support adequate staffing in our police department."

Frey does not support the Ballot Question No. 2 in Minneapolis, which would replace the city's police department with a largely yet-to-be designed "Department of Public Safety."

Two of Frey's leading challengers, Kate Knuth and Sheila Nezhad, both supported Ballot Question No. 2.

Meanwhile, challenger AJ Awed told Patch that he has "long advocated for the "koban" model of policing we see in Japan."

Awed says that "unarmed 'koban' officers would be more able to respond to minor emergencies, give directions, and otherwise interact with residents on a more intimate basis than would be the case for police services in Minneapolis – and could be responsible for homelessness, addiction, mental health, and neighborhood safety response."

Awed, like Frey, does not support Ballot Question No. 2.