The Minneapolis DFL on Saturday endorsed state Sen. Omar Fateh to be the next mayor of the state's largest city.

In a post on X, Fateh says he is incredibly honored to be the candidate endorsed for Minneapolis mayor. 

"This endorsement is a message that Minneapolis residents are done with broken promises, vetoes, and politics as usual. It's a mandate to build a city that works for all of us," he said.

Fateh is currently running as a Democratic Socialist.

Current Mayor Jacob Frey's campaign manager released a statement following the vote, saying, "This election should be decided by the entire city rather than the small group of people who became delegates." 

The Frey campaign on Monday submitted a challenge to the state DFL. The campaign in a news release said there was an "extraordinarily high" number of uncounted votes produced by the "highly flawed and untested" electronic voting system used at the convention. 

Frey is asking for the endorsement to be invalidated.

In order to win an endorsement, a candidate must receive 60% of the votes.

Chelsea McFarren is chair of Mpls for the Many, a political action committee seeking to elect progressives and a new mayor come November.

"What I think it says about Minneapolis is that we are ready to move on from the divisiveness and the incompetence of Mayor Frey and elect a new mayor," said McFarren. "I think that we've already seen what he's accomplished on the state level, he's passed education, he's a champion for workers rights."

Hamline University professor and political analyst David Schultz said while Fateh was a favorite, he thought the incumbent two-term Frey would have had the strategy, and support, to pull off a nomination.

"When incumbents run for reelection, it's really a referendum on them," said Schultz. "I think there's a lot of issues in terms of crime. I think also, for good or for bad, there's a concern about availablity and affordabilty of housing in Minneapolis."

Schultz is now calling Frey the underdog, and said he is going to be at a deficiency in terms of resources and party help.

"This is the first time since Mayor Rybak achieved 60% that a candidate for mayor has actually gotten the endorsement at the convention," said Schultz. "Does this suggest that the party is more unified? I don't know. Does this suggest that maybe the progressive wing of the party has finally succeeded in taking over? Possibly."

Who is Sen. Omar Fateh?

Fateh has represented the South Minneapolis area where George Floyd was killed since 2021. 

He's championed the cause of UBER drivers, and has backed an additional tax for affordable housing, rent stabilization and a $20 minimum wage. 

In 2021, he supported a losing charter amendment that critics say would have defunded the police.

"Now that he's won the endorsement, there's going to be resources heading his way," Professor Larry Jacobs, political scientist with the University of Minnesota, said.

Fateh has pulled off a major upset before. In August 2020, he shocked the Minnesota political world when he upset former Sen. Jeff Hayden in the DFL primary.

The state senator has had brushes with controversy. Like other political figures, Fateh had to return $11,000 of contributions with links to Feeding our Future. In 2022, a Senate ethics committee complaint against him was upheld, and a second complaint was dismissed.  

"[Mayor] Jacob Frey is going to have the advantage with money. He is the incumbent. He's got broad support in the business community and among better-off voters," Jacobs said.