Municipal socialism is an increasingly popular idea, and not only in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani is favored to become mayor in November. New polling in the Minneapolis race for mayor shows democratic socialist challenger Omar Fateh gaining on the incumbent, Jacob Frey, a centrist Democrat. A new poll shows Fateh only five points behind Frey, up from thirteen points behind two weeks ago. Interviewing Fateh late last week, it was easy to understand why the thirty-five-year-old state senator is breaking through. He may not win, but in a bleak, unstable time, his vision of socialism is hopeful and grounded.
Asked what democratic socialism means to him, Fateh, whose first child was born last month, had a straightforward answer. “It’s pretty clear-cut,” he said. “You want to take care of everyone.”
He sees democratic socialism as a needed corrective to our political system, which tends to be rigged for the elites. “Within the Democratic Party,” he explained, “there are not enough voices for working people.”
The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party proved Fateh’s point this summer. After Fateh won the party’s endorsement through its usual process — which is not a primary, but rather a caucus and convention, in which delegates vote on the nominees — the state party withdrew their endorsement of him on a technicality, challenging the legitimacy of the process under what many supporters of Fateh’s campaign say was pressure from the incumbent mayor Jacob Frey’s supporters and party donors. Representative Ilhan Omar and sixteen other Minneapolis Farmer–Labor Democrats condemned the state party’s move as “inexcusable” and said that it reflected “blatant corruption” and the “influence of big money in our politics.” Frey still has the support of establishment Democrats like Governor Tim Walz and Senator Amy Klobuchar.
The son of Somali immigrants, Fateh says he grew up hearing his father talk…
Auteur: Liza Featherstone
