The 2017 Minneapolis mayoral election was held on November 7, 2017, to elect the mayor of Minneapolis. This was the third mayoral election in the city's history to use ranked-choice voting. Municipal elections in Minnesota are nonpartisan, although candidates were able to identify with a political party on the ballot.

No candidate achieved a majority in the first round of ballot counting on election night. Jacob Frey was declared the winner the next day after several rounds of vote tabulations.

Background 2013 election

Betsy Hodges was elected mayor of Minneapolis on November 5, 2013, out of a field of 35 candidates, with her term beginning on January 2, 2014. In response to the large candidate field, the Minneapolis Charter Commission approved a referendum increasing the filing fee from $20 to $500. The proposal was approved by voters on November 4, 2014.

Campaign In a blog letter dated November 7, 2016, a housing activist and longtime Minneapolis resident known as Captain Jack Sparrow announced his candidacy for mayor in the 2017 election; this was his third election campaign for office in the past six years. Nekima Levy-Pounds, an attorney, civil rights activist, and former president of the Minneapolis NAACP, was one of the first candidates to begin their campaign, with an announcement on November 14, 2016. Hodges announced her re-election campaign on December 15, 2016. City Council member Jacob Frey and filmmaker Aswar Rahman entered in early January, while State Representative Raymond Dehn and theatre executive Tom Hoch announced their campaigns in February. David John Wilson, an active member of the Democratic Farmer-Labor (DFL) party, entered the race during the candidate filing period in August 2017, but he declined to identify by party affiliation in favor of the stated principle "Rainbows Butterflies Unicorns". Ian Simpson ran under the platform of the Idea Party, which asks the citizens of Minneapolis to pitch in their own creative solutions for change.

Formal candidate filing began on August 1, 2017. Political parties held caucuses and conventions in the spring and summer, deciding whether to endorse a candidate for election. The DFL did not endorse a Minneapolis mayoral candidate at its July 2017 convention.

On October 27, the Star Tribune editorial staff endorsed Jacob Frey for mayor. This was followed by an endorsement of Frey by the Minnesota Daily on October 30.

Candidates Democratic-Farmer-Labor Raymond Dehn, State Representative (District 59B) Al Flowers, community activist Jacob Frey, City Council member (Third Ward) Tom Hoch, former president of the Hennepin Theatre Trust, former deputy executive director of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority Betsy Hodges, incumbent mayor Gregg Iverson, retired employee of Minnesota Department of Transportation Nekima Levy-Pounds, civil rights activist, former president of the Minneapolis NAACP, founding director of the Community Justice Project at the University of St. Thomas law school Jeffrey Sterling Olson Aswar Rahman, filmmaker, businessman Suspended campaign on November 2, 2017, and subsequently endorsed Jacob Frey.

Independent L.A. Nik, author and podcast host

Farmer Labor Troy Benjegerdes

Basic Income Guarantee Captain Jack Sparrow, urban housing and Occupy movement activist

Socialist Workers Party David Rosenfeld

Libertarian Charlie Gers

Rainbows Butterflies Unicorns David John Wilson

The Idea Party Ian Simpson

Gallery

Not pictured: Jeffrey Sterling Olson, David Rosenfeld, L.A. Nik

Results No candidate achieved a majority in the first round on election night. Several rounds of vote transfers were necessary to determine a winner, a process which did not start until the next day.

Candidates whose total votes in all ranked positions are less than the highest votes in first rank are immediately eliminated. In 2017 five candidates remained for the sequential elimination process. + Votes by ranking of candidates above 2% Candidate/votes by rank 1 2 3 TotalJacob Frey 24.97% 19.90% 14.39% 59.26%Tom Hoch 19.27% 18.67% 13.22% 51.16%Betsy Hodges 18.08% 16.57% 21.57% 56.22%Raymond Dehn 17.34% 16.51% 14.04% 47.89%Nekima Levy-Pounds 15.06% 17.43% 16.31% 48.80%Other or none5.28%10.92%20.47%

With four rounds of elimination, Jacob Frey was announced as the winner on Wednesday, November 8, at 2 pm, 18 hours after the polls closed.

+ Runoff round tabulation Candidate Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 votes(% of active) transfer votes(% of active) transfer votes(% of active) transfer votes(% of active) transfer votes(% of active) Jacob Frey26,11625.0%+63426,75026.3%+2,73029,48029.5%+9,88839,36842.1%+7,34846,71657.2% Raymond Dehn 18,10117.3%+47318,57418.2%+5,45424,02824.1%+3,33027,35829.2%+7,61334,97142.8% Betsy Hodges (incumbent)18,91518.1%+55219,46719.1%+4,04423,51123.6%+3,36426,87528.7%−26,875 Tom Hoch 20,12519.3%+78720,91220.5%+1,84222,75422.8%−22,754 Nekima Levy-Pounds 15,71615.0%+47316,18915.9%−16,189 Charlie Gers 1,2331.2%−1,233 Aswar Rahman 7560.7%−756 Al Flowers 7110.7%−711 L.A. Nik 6120.6%−612 David Rosenfeld 4770.5%−477 Captain Jack Sparrow 4380.4%−438 Gregg A. Iverson 3350.3%−335 Ronald Lischeid 3250.3%−325 David John Wilson 2200.2%−220 Troy Benjegerdes 1840.2%−184 Undeclared Write-ins 1380.1%−138 Ian Simpson 1190.1%−119 Christopher Robin Zimmerman 10.0%−1 Theron Preston Washington 00.0%0 Active ballots (% of Valid) 104,522 100% 101,892 97.5% 99,773 95.5% 93,601 89.6% 81,687 78.2% Exhausted ballots (% of Valid) 0 0.0% +2,630 2,630 2.5% +2,119 4,749 4.5% +6,172 10,921 10.4% +11,914 22,835 21.8% Total valid ballots104,522 104,522 104,522 104,522 104,522

Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services

See also Minneapolis City Council election, 2017 Minneapolis municipal election, 2017

References

External links Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services