This story has been updated with the news that Andrea Jenkins has been declared the winner of the Ward 8 city council race.
City Council President Andrea Jenkins narrowly prevailed against challenger Soren Stevenson to keep her seat in Ward 8. Stevenson held a slight lead when first ballot totals were tallied Tuesday night. But both candidates failed to secure 50 percent of the total votes cast, plus one additional vote, which is needed to secure a win in the first round of vote tabulation. Stevenson got 44.5 percent of the vote and Jenkins got 43.4 percent in the first round of ranked-choice voting.
However, Jenkins was declared the winner by 38 votes on Wednesday morning after second-choice and third-choice votes were counted. Jenkins’ win is within the margin of victory for Stevenson to request a recount. His campaign said it would make a decision in the coming days.
At last night’s campaign event, Stevenson joked with supporters that he had prepared both a victory and concession speech, but that he had not expected to need a “too close to call” speech. Spirits were high among Stevenson’s supporters Tuesday night, with several campaign volunteers seeing Stevenson’s lead in first-round vote tabulation as promising for Stevenson’s prospect of victory.
Tyler Vogel, a friend of Stevenson who attended grad school with him, said he was optimistic about Stevenson’s chances of winning the election. Vogel had helped Stevenson’s campaign with canvassing and helping with the organization of events. Vogel said that even if Stevenson lost, he saw the successful building of a grassroots campaign with a diverse group of supporters as an achievement on its own.
Stevenson compared his campaign to the story of David and Goliath, as he had fewer financial resources than Jenkin’s campaign, and believed he also had less name recognition due to Jenkins being the incumbent.
“When we would block an endorsement, that would be a victory,” Stevenson said. “And then when we would win an endorsement, [we were] just over the moon. Just amazing. It was an exhilarating experience. It felt really powerful to be the underdog and to come up and [be in the lead.]”
Stevenson’s campaign manager, Arianna Feldman, said Stevenson’s team decided on a strategy of focusing “on people power over financial power.” They decided to have more conversations with voters to make up for the campaign’s financial disadvantage.
“We knew from the start that we would be outraised and outspent when it came to financial resources,” Feldman said. “And so, we really focused on the community power and on organizing on the ground. We felt confident that we could still reach more neighbors, that we could talk to more people, that we could organize with more people on the ground.”
Stevenson said that voters were receptive to his campaign’s door-knocking and outreach efforts.
“We knocked on so many doors multiple times. People always had the opportunity to be rude, to be callous, to ignore us. And yet we continue to have great conversations about the kind of city we deserve, the kind of city we want and the kind of city that recognizes that all of us are human,” Stevenson said.
Minneapolis Council member Robin Wonsley, who represents Ward 2, attended Stevenson’s election night party. Wonsley, who ran unopposed and won reelection with 68 percent of the votes, was excited about the prospect of working with Stevenson, saying she believed that Stevenson would be a “benefit to working-class people in Minneapolis overall,” if he won the election.
If Stevenson had won, it would have bolstered the power of the progressive wing of the Minneapolis City Council. Wonsley said that she hoped the progressive wing of the council would have the votes to pursue issues about environmental justice, workers’ rights, and housing, including rent control and homelessness if Stevenson is victorious.
Stevenson viewed being ahead in the first round of vote tabulation as an achievement by itself. “It says a lot about our team. It says a lot about our neighbors and the kind of city we want to see,” Stevenson said.
Although That margin is within the range that Stevenson could request a publicly funded recount if he wishes. Shortly after the final tally was announced, Stevenson said his campaign hadn’t made a decision.