The Minneapolis mayoral debate at Westminster Hall on Friday night Sept. 26 offered the sharpest exchanges of the campaign so far, with incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey facing his top four challengers: State Sen. Omar Fateh, Rev. DeWayne Davis, attorney Jazz Hampton and activist Brenda Short.
Downtown’s recovery dominated the early discussion. Nearly one in four office spaces remain vacant in early 2025, a steep rise from roughly one in seven before the pandemic. Frey touted efforts to “break up massive storefronts” and recruit small, locally owned businesses, saying the strategy is key to revitalizing the core.
Fateh dismissed the approach as too little, too late. “The downtown Mayor Frey inherited in 2017 is a dream compared to what we have now,” the state senator said. “He can blame Covid-19 or George Floyd, but this decline is on his watch.”
Fateh proposed a commercial vacancy tax and lobbying for a statewide land-value tax to generate revenue for city services. Hampton, meanwhile, called for faster permitting and inspections to speed up private development.
The candidates also rejected the idea of using public dollars to build a new arena for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx. “Every dollar we give away to billionaires is dollars away from basic services,” Fateh said.
Frey agreed that a partnership with the teams could be supported “without the city footing the bill.” Hampton added that the Target Center underwent a major renovation in 2017, while team officials insist the arena now faces structural limitations.
The night’s most heated exchanges came over homelessness policy. Fateh argued for transferring oversight of homeless encampments from the city’s Regulatory Services Department to the Health Department, framing homelessness as a public health crisis tied to the spread of infectious diseases such as hepatitis, syphilis and HIV. “We need a public health approach,” he said.
Davis supported keeping encampment oversight within Regulatory Services but urged an expansion of outreach staff, noting the city currently has only four or five workers dedicated to encampments. “The response we’re getting is a reaction that isn’t a policy, that isn’t a plan,” he said.
Frey defended his housing record, pointing to an “eight-and-a-half-fold increase” in deeply affordable units, defined as housing for residents earning 30% or less of the area median income, since he took office. “We have provided eight and a half times the amount of deeply affordable homes since before I took office,” Frey said.
Hampton challenged those numbers as misleading. “When we say eight and a half times, all that meant was we went from 85 deeply affordable units on average to 296,” he said. “We need a lot more than 296 per year.”
Rent control emerged as another dividing line. Fateh is the only candidate to support a Minneapolis rent control ordinance, saying it could include exemptions to encourage responsible development. “I think we have a lot of opportunities to learn from St. Paul, including what exemptions can be put into place,” he said. Opponents pointed to St. Paul’s experience, where the City Council has repeatedly rolled back the voter-approved rent cap since 2021.
The debate also revisited policing, specifically the future of Police Chief Brian O’Hara. Last June, Frey’s challengers criticized O’Hara’s presence at a federal raid involving ICE agents on Lake Street.
Asked if they would keep him on, the candidates offered mixed responses. Short said she would replace him because “He has made several negative statements about our city.” Fateh said he has “strong, strong disagreements” with the chief but added that any decision would require council input.
The 90-minute forum closed with sharp personal contrasts. Fateh accused Frey of being a “constant liar,” while Frey countered that Fateh had yet to present detailed solutions to the city’s most pressing problems.
Minneapolis uses ranked-choice voting, allowing residents to rank candidates in order of preference rather than selecting just one. Early voting is already underway at the Early Vote Center, 980 E. Hennepin Ave., ahead of the Nov. 4 general election.
For more information visit, www.vote.minneapolismn.gov/voters/vote-early-in-person.
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