The City of Minneapolis has had a number of relatively placid Mayoral elections in recent years, while a few have been tumultuous. The race this year is falling into the latter category, and may be the most turbulent – and consequential – in the city’s 158 -year history.
The fissure in the DFL party, which has controlled the Mayor’s office and most elective positions in city government for the better part of the past 65 years, is a harbinger of an extremely contentious contest that could drive many in the progressive wing of the party out of it in the event of a victory by incumbent Jacob Frey, while the more moderate, establishment section of the party may splinter if the insurgent campaign of Democratic Socialist state legislator Omar Fateh prevails after having obtained the Party’s endorsement at the convoluted convention, this summer, which the Party’s governing state unit then revoked based on flaws in the convention process, an issue now being challenged to the DFL state Executive Committee.
Regardless of the internal outcome, the progress and ultimate result of the Mayoral race this November could have significant repercussions on the Party’s prospects across the state in next year’s gubernatorial and legislative elections and even spill over into the races for the state’s Eighth Congressional positions and the open Senate spot being vacated by DFL’er Tina Smith. Indeed, the fight could even have some impact on the electoral pulse in the 2028 presidential election.
The DFL uproar in the state’s largest city recall some of noteworthy past municipal Mayoral races that comprise the city’s electoral history.
Party Prevails
An outgrowth of the post-World War II merger between the competing left-wing Democrat and Farmer Labor parties in the state, the DFL has been the dominant part in the city since that time. In fact, its posture dates back even earlier to the election of 1943, when a young upstart named Hubert Humphrey prevailed on his second run for mayor defeating the Republican opponent he lost to two years earlier.
Republicans managed to edge their way back in the power at City Hall in later years, until the victory in 1961, by DFL’er Arthur Natalin, a former Humphrey aide, which ushered in a long DFL hegemony in the city.
His four two-year terms were followed by the sea change victory of Charles Stenvig. An early version of an independent candidate like Jesse Ventura, he defeated the candidates of the two established major parties, DFL and GOP. Riding the crest of concern of a crime, Stenvig ran a law-and-order campaign from his base as head of the city’s police officer’s union, the Federation. After a pair of two-year terms, he was defeated by northeast City Council member Al Hofstede, restoring DFL control of the Mayoralty, who was then defeated one term later by Stenvig, but then came back and defeated him again in the next cycle.
Their seesaw battles were followed by an unbroken string of DFL leadership, headed by the 14 years of Don Fraser, the popular former Congress member from Minneapolis, and, after stepped down, four DFL’ers, including Frey’s two four-year terms.
While all DFL’ers, not all of their victories were devoid of turbulence. On two occasions, incumbents were defeated, including Frey’s initial victory over single-termer Betsy Hodges.
Hizzoner History
This recent history recalls the volatile Mayoral elections of the past.
One of the city’s most notorious Hizzoner politicians was A. E. Adams, known as “Doc,” who served three non–consecutive terms as mayor over a span of 26 years from 1876 to 1902 until driven out of office by corruption charges, a mini version of the Tammany Hall Boss Tweed era in New York City in the latter part of the 18th century.
Perhaps the most contentious contest occurred during World War I, beginning with the election of Thomas Van Lear as mayor in 1916, a vigorous labor union advocate who defeated a Republican incumbent Wallace Nye, whose two-year term was plagued by financial scandal and the rising tide of progressive views.
But Van Lear only served a single two-year stint himself before he was defeated in 1918 by J. E. Meyers who ran on a “Loyalist” banner in a heated campaign fueled by public dissatisfaction with the stance of the incumbent Mayor’s party objecting to American participation in World War I, although the Mayor himself was a supporter of the war effort. Van Lear, the labor leader loser in that campaign, was the last Mayor of the city to be a member of his party.
He was a Socialist.
