Incumbent Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey fell short of claiming victory Tuesday, but leads the race with 42.79% of the vote, needing 50% to win outright with Minneapolis’ ranked-choice voting.

Under the city’s ranked-choice voting system, officials will begin calculating second- and third-place choices Wednesday to determine a winner.

If Frey remains in office, he stands to benefit from voters’ approval of another ballot question Tuesday — one that moves the city to a strong-mayor form of government.

“I’m not going to give any grand pronouncements at this moment, but I will say we are winning, and we are winning by a whole lot,” Frey said in a speech at the Jefe Urban Cocina restaurant in Minneapolis.

Frey, who has been a vocal opponent of replacing the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety, called for unity to pursue cultural change. Fifty-six percent of Minneapolis residents voted against this measure in Tuesday’s election.

“There are many that wear the uniform … to make the city a better place,” Frey said. “There are others that have done wrong by our community; we need to make sure that they are too held accountable. Both of those things are true and you can hold those two truths in your heart at the same time.”

Just a handful of candidates were anticipated to be potential threats to Frey, with two –- Sheila Nezhad and Kate Knuth – teaming up on a strategy that urged voters to leave Frey off their ballots entirely. The pair had the backing of U.S. Rep. llhan Omar. Nezhad 21% of the vote Tuesday night, with Knuth a step behind at about 18.5%.

Frey was the face of Minneapolis during some of its darkest days, including Floyd’s death and the rioting that marred protests that followed, including the burning of a police precinct after Frey ordered officers to abandon it. Floyd’s death in May 2020 sparked the most widespread unrest in the U.S. since the Rodney King riots.

“We’re sending a message that transformational change is within reach if we unite around a common cause to get it done,” Frey said. “We’re sending a message that real and serious government and true change in our society is not about a hashtag or a slogan, but is about doing a hard work each and every day recognizing that the precision of our solutions must match the precision of the harm that was initially inflicted.”

Justin Amaker can be reached at justin.amaker@stthomas.edu.
Luana Karl can be reached at karl2414@stthomas.edu.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.