Frazier wins Hennepin County attorney race, making state history

State Rep. Cedrick Frazier, a former public defender and labor lawyer, defeated former prosecutor Anders Folk on Tuesday, Nov. 3, to become Hennepin County attorney. He will be the first African American county attorney in Minnesota’s 168-year history.

Frazier won despite a steep fundraising gap; Folk raised $742,000. Speaking to a packed crowd at Pillar Forum, Frazier credited his volunteers and small donors.

“We didn’t have big time donors,” Frazier said. “We didn’t have folks that could say, ‘I can just give you $1,000.’”

Folk conceded Tuesday night at Park Tavern in St. Louis Park. “You win some. You lose some,” he told supporters. “I couldn’t be more proud of the race we ran.”

Frazier called his win a mandate for people who feel ignored by the justice system. “To every family that feels like the system has forgotten them, ignored them or left them behind, justice must belong to everyone,” he said. “I know what it means to fight.”

Frazier will replace Mary Moriarty on Monday, Jan. 4.

Perry L. Moriearty, co-director of the Child Advocacy and Juvenile Justice Clinic at the University of Minnesota Law School, said Moriarty’s biggest accomplishment was breaking with the tough-on-crime playbook in favor of evidence-based approaches to public safety. She hopes Frazier keeps the office’s Division of Professional Standards, its evidence disclosure policy, its Emerging Adult Unit and its Children and Families Division.

“The question is not how many people the office prosecutes or incarcerates, but whether its policies actually make communities safer,” Moriarty said. “Frazier can carry that principle forward while bringing his own leadership style, relationships and priorities to the work.”

Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley said she is eager to work with Frazier.

“We have made history tonight. He’s made a commitment to the residents of Hennepin County that he will prosecute ICE,” Conley said. “He’s looking out for everyone, no matter where we’re from, no matter what part of the county we live in, no matter what our wealth.”

Conley, a former social worker who chairs the county’s Health Committee, plans to help Frazier create the Victim and Survivor Advisory Council he promised during the campaign. “I care about somebody who’s putting victims to the same high standard that he would put anybody else,” she said.

Frazier also pledged to prosecute federal agents for misconduct during Operation Metro Surge, the federal immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities. His other pledges were to reduce racial disparities in the county’s legal system and to keep working to overturn wrongful convictions.

That work matters to Marvina Haynes, who fought for nearly two decades to free her brother, Marvin Haynes, from a wrongful murder conviction. He had missed the two-year deadline to file a post-conviction petition, but Moriarty’s office waived the time bar so his claims could be heard. A Hennepin County judge vacated his conviction, and he was released on Dec. 11, 2023.

“Every person with credible evidence of innocence deserves a fair opportunity to be heard,” Marvina Haynes said. “We need a system that does not depend on individual discretion or extraordinary circumstances.”

Such cases are rare. The Great North Innocence Project received 1,000 claims over five years, and only three led to overturned convictions. The Minnesota Attorney General’s Conviction Review Unit disbanded after the Justice Department declined to renew its funding. Frazier pledged to keep Hennepin County’s conviction integrity unit, now the only one in the state.

Frazier also wants to expand youth diversion, working with county commissioners and legislators to find “more tools to deal with young people when they make poor decisions, or if they’re in situations that are very harmful to them.”

The county already diverts many young people out of the system. In 2025, it reviewed 3,113 juvenile cases, filed charges in 39% and diverted 38% before charges after the young people completed rehabilitation programs. Of 2,641 cases so far this year, 45% were diverted and 36% led to charges.

Research shows what is at stake. A 2023 Sentencing Project report found Black children are five times more likely than white children to be incarcerated, and Native American children four times more likely. Moriearty said Frazier’s office should examine racial disparities in which young people are charged as adults.

“That does not mean they should escape accountability for serious wrongdoing,” she said. “It means that the response should account for their developmental differences and maximize their opportunities for rehabilitation.”

Frazier said he once planned to take his success back to Chicago’s South Side.

“My dream was to go back to the community I came from, to be a beacon of hope, to be a light, to be a resource,” Frazier said. “But Minnesota did all those things for me, and that is why I’m here.”

Clint Combs is a freelance journalist and contributing writer for the Minnesota State Rep. Cedrick Frazier, a former public defender and labor lawyer, defeated former prosecutor Anders Folk on Tuesday, Nov. 3, to become Hennepin County attorney. He will be the first African American county attorney in Minnesota’s 168-year history.

Frazier won despite a steep fundraising gap; Folk raised $742,000. Speaking to a packed crowd at Pillar Forum, Frazier credited his volunteers and small donors.

“We didn’t have big time donors,” Frazier said. “We didn’t have folks that could say, ‘I can just give you $1,000.’”

Folk conceded Tuesday night at Park Tavern in St. Louis Park. “You win some. You lose some,” he told supporters. “I couldn’t be more proud of the race we ran.”

Frazier called his win a mandate for people who feel ignored by the justice system. “To every family that feels like the system has forgotten them, ignored them or left them behind, justice must belong to everyone,” he said. “I know what it means to fight.”

Frazier will replace Mary Moriarty on Monday, Jan. 4.

Perry L. Moriearty, co-director of the Child Advocacy and Juvenile Justice Clinic at the University of Minnesota Law School, said Moriarty’s biggest accomplishment was breaking with the tough-on-crime playbook in favor of evidence-based approaches to public safety. She hopes Frazier keeps the office’s Division of Professional Standards, its evidence disclosure policy, its Emerging Adult Unit and its Children and Families Division.

“The question is not how many people the office prosecutes or incarcerates, but whether its policies actually make communities safer,” Moriarty said. “Frazier can carry that principle forward while bringing his own leadership style, relationships and priorities to the work.”

Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley said she is eager to work with Frazier.

“We have made history tonight. He’s made a commitment to the residents of Hennepin County that he will prosecute ICE,” Conley said. “He’s looking out for everyone, no matter where we’re from, no matter what part of the county we live in, no matter what our wealth.”

Conley, a former social worker who chairs the county’s Health Committee, plans to help Frazier create the Victim and Survivor Advisory Council he promised during the campaign. “I care about somebody who’s putting victims to the same high standard that he would put anybody else,” she said.

Frazier also pledged to prosecute federal agents for misconduct during Operation Metro Surge, the federal immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities. His other pledges were to reduce racial disparities in the county’s legal system and to keep working to overturn wrongful convictions.

That work matters to Marvina Haynes, who fought for nearly two decades to free her brother, Marvin Haynes, from a wrongful murder conviction. He had missed the two-year deadline to file a post-conviction petition, but Moriarty’s office waived the time bar so his claims could be heard. A Hennepin County judge vacated his conviction, and he was released on Dec. 11, 2023.

“Every person with credible evidence of innocence deserves a fair opportunity to be heard,” Marvina Haynes said. “We need a system that does not depend on individual discretion or extraordinary circumstances.”

Such cases are rare. The Great North Innocence Project received 1,000 claims over five years, and only three led to overturned convictions. The Minnesota Attorney General’s Conviction Review Unit disbanded after the Justice Department declined to renew its funding. Frazier pledged to keep Hennepin County’s conviction integrity unit, now the only one in the state.

Frazier also wants to expand youth diversion, working with county commissioners and legislators to find “more tools to deal with young people when they make poor decisions, or if they’re in situations that are very harmful to them.”

The county already diverts many young people out of the system. In 2025, it reviewed 3,113 juvenile cases, filed charges in 39% and diverted 38% before charges after the young people completed rehabilitation programs. Of 2,641 cases so far this year, 45% were diverted and 36% led to charges.

Research shows what is at stake. A 2023 Sentencing Project report found Black children are five times more likely than white children to be incarcerated, and Native American children four times more likely. Moriearty said Frazier’s office should examine racial disparities in which young people are charged as adults.

“That does not mean they should escape accountability for serious wrongdoing,” she said. “It means that the response should account for their developmental differences and maximize their opportunities for rehabilitation.”

Frazier said he once planned to take his success back to Chicago’s South Side.

“My dream was to go back to the community I came from, to be a beacon of hope, to be a light, to be a resource,” Frazier said. “But Minnesota did all those things for me, and that is why I’m here.”

Clint Combs is a freelance journalist and contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. He welcomes reader responses at combs0284@gmail.com.