Progressive Mpls City Council Suffers Big Losses On Election Day

MINNEAPOLIS — As Mayor Jacob Frey cruised toward a second term on Election Day, the 13-member Minneapolis City Council lost on a number of fronts.

In September, council members passed ballot proposal No. 2, which asked voters to approve replacing the city's police department with a new "Department of Public Safety" that would answer to the city council.

The proposal was soundly rejected by residents Tuesday, 56 percent voting "no" and 44 percent voting "yes."

On top of that, five incumbents — including four who supported the failed ballot proposal to replace the police department — lost their seats on Tuesday.

And finally, voters Tuesday approved a different ballot measure that strips power away from the city council and gives it to the mayor. Minneapolis city government will now change from a "weak mayor" system to a "strong mayor" system.

Meanwhile, in the mayoral election, Frey overcame progressives Kate Knuth and Sheila Nezhad., who teamed up to defeat the more centrist mayor. Knuth and Nezhad — who supported the police amendment — promoted a "Don't Rank Frey" campaign, hoping to leverage the city's ranked-choice vote system against the incumbent.

United States Rep. Ilhan Omar — who represents Minneapolis — endorsed Knuth and Nezhad and told voters to not rank Frey.

In the end, Frey won with 70,669 votes to Knuth's 55,007 votes in the second round of tabulation. All other candidates were eliminated after the first round.