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CNN
7 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Democratic socialists fresh off Mamdani victory see opportunity in Minneapolis
State & local racesFacebookTweetLink Follow Less than a month after Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York City's mayoral primary, some of Mamdani's allies are coalescing around another democratic socialist challenging the incumbent Democratic mayor of Minneapolis. Minnesota State Sen. Omar Fateh has proposed enacting rent stabilization if elected mayor, disciplining and firing local police who work with immigration officers, and increasing access to affordable housing. Fateh on Saturday won the endorsement of the Minneapolis Democrats at a convention that supporters of incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey have challenged, arguing the results were tainted by issues with the voting system. It's a setback for Frey, though one decided by several hundred delegates on the final ballot rather than the larger electorate in November. Still, Fateh's emergence shows democratic socialism is on the upswing well beyond New York City, powered by record-low approval ratings for the Democratic Party and as many elected Democrats face criticism from the party's left flank. 'We are 2-for-2 with socialist mayors of major American cities,' exclaimed Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, a national climate justice group that also endorsed Mamdani, in a video she posted after Fateh's victory. Fateh is the first Somali-American and first Muslim to serve in the Minnesota State Senate. In the state legislature, he has pursued funding free college tuition and securing a statewide living wage for ride-share drivers. He told CNN that he already has more than 1,000 volunteers knocking on doors and making calls. He sees Mamdani's win as proof that progressives can lead with their values and still win. 'I think nationally the Democratic establishment has not done a great job speaking to the needs of working people for far too long,' he said. Frey is a two-term incumbent who led Minneapolis during the COVID-19 pandemic and the protests and unrest following George Floyd's murder by a White police officer. He has positioned himself as a 'pragmatic progressive.' He maintains that under his leadership, he's made important investments in affordable housing like through the Stable Homes, Stable Schools program aimed at getting Minneapolis public school students experiencing homelessness into housing or providing them with housing assistance. 'We have a chance right now to make Minneapolis a national model for how major cities that are run by Democrats can work, how they can deliver for people on everything from affordability to public safety,' Frey told CNN. Frey has alienated some of the city's progressives with the use of his veto power. Last year, he vetoed a council-backed resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, a Minneapolis minimum ride-share pay law and a carbon emission fees ordinance. But he argues the issues are more complicated than they appear on the surface and he had good reason to try to block some of what's come out of the city council. 'Occasionally, you do have to tell people what they don't want to hear when that in fact is the truth. I won't sign on to things like defunding the police or rent control, when those policies have been shown very clearly to not work,' Frey said. Shiney-Ajay told CNN that her group and allies relied on the same sort of grassroots organizing as in New York to deliver Fateh's victory at the Minneapolis convention of what is formally known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. 'We had a large, organized push towards getting people to go to the ward gatherings and then be able to get elected as delegates,' Shiney-Ajay said. It was the first time in 16 years city Democrats made an endorsement for a mayoral candidate. 'I think this is really a sign of a seismic shift happening in the country right now of young people in particular, just calling for policies that actually improve the lives of everyday people and being sick of the status quo,' Shiney-Ajay added. The endorsement means Fateh will get resources from the state DFL party like volunteers and access to the voter access network, the database that is given to endorsed candidates. Frey noted that he came in second place at the nominating convention in his last two successful runs for mayor. His campaign has challenged the convention results, alleging hundreds of votes were missing or uncounted in mayoral balloting. Local reports suggest the endorsing convention was chaotic, the party's online delegate voting system malfunctioned and at one point, some of Frey's supporters left the arena. Minneapolis DFL Chair John Maraist says while Frey is well within his right to ask the state party for a review, the convention ran in accordance with the rules. 'I think when a lot of people see a vibrant and very participatory discussion, a debate over the rules, they see chaos but really this was very tightly organized,' Maraist told CNN. Just as in New York, a final verdict on the Democrats' intra-party struggle in Minneapolis will come in the fall. Many of Frey's supporters are also shrugging off the impact of the endorsement and believe he will ultimately win a third term. 'I think he's well positioned because both his record and his policy priorities are more closely aligned with the Minneapolis electorate than that of the city council, who is significantly to his left on issues like defunding the police and allowing homeless encampments,' said Jacob Hill, Executive Director of All of Minneapolis, a PAC that endorsed Frey. Hill argues Fateh is too extreme. 'Omar Fateh makes Bernie Sanders look conservative,' he said. Like New York City, Minneapolis has ranked-choice voting, but in the general election rather than the primary. Some of Fateh's supporters are wary of deploying an 'anyone but Frey' strategy in the fall's ranked-choice general election contest, like what was used against Andrew Cuomo in New York, as they say that has not worked against Frey in the past. 'There were challenges to Mayor Frey in 2021 that used a 'don't rank Frey' strategy and that failed monumentally so just using that same terminology is not something we want to do, but there are three viable candidates that are opposing Mayor Frey,' said Chelsea McFarren, chair of Minneapolis for the Many, a progressive political action committee founded in 2023. The group has not yet endorsed a mayoral candidate but would like to see Frey ousted in favor of a more progressive leader.
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Minneapolis Democrats endorse democratic socialist for mayor over incumbent
A Democratic socialist member of the Minnesota state senate won his party's endorsement for the Minneapolis mayoral race over the incumbent, giving momentum to the progressive left's political rise. Omar Fateh, a state senator from Minneapolis's southside, beat Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, who served as mayor during the George Floyd protests and through the pandemic. Fateh gained momentum after Zohran Mamdani, also a democratic socialist and state lawmaker, won the primary for New York City mayor. Fateh was first elected to the state senate in 2020 and won re-election in 2022. He was the first Somali American and Muslim elected to the chamber. He chaired the higher education committee and advanced a plan for free college for families who make less than $80,000. 'I am incredibly honored to be the DFL endorsed candidate for Minneapolis mayor,' Fateh said after the endorsement win, referring to the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, the Democratic party in Minnesota. '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.' Frey's campaign contends that the endorsement process in Minneapolis was flawed and an electronic voting system didn't properly count all votes. He is planning an appeal to the state party, multiple local news outlets reported. It is not unheard of for an incumbent to lose the party's endorsement in the city – Frey came in second in his two prior runs for the office and still won the elections. In the endorsement process for Minneapolis races, local delegates vote for which candidate they want to endorse, then narrow down until a candidate tops 60% of the vote. In the first ballot this weekend, Fateh got 43% of votes to Frey's 31%. The tabulation took longer than expected, and some questioned whether all votes were actually included in the eventual tally, Axios Twin Cities reported. Frey's supporters left the convention, and the remaining delegates voted by a show of hands, giving Fateh the win. 'I want to thank everyone who showed up to support my campaign,' Frey said after the endorsement loss. 'This election should be decided by our entire city, not by a handful of delegates.' The city uses ranked-choice voting, and the general election is this November. After Mamdani's win in June, Fateh posted a video in a similar style, talking about his plans for affordability, defending the city against Trump and public safety. 'Everyone keeps asking me, Omar, why aren't you doing more videos? As a state senator with a second full time job and a kid on the way, I just haven't been able to find the time,' he says while walking through the city. Like Mamdani, Fateh focused on affordability and has emphasized that he is a renter throughout his campaign – topics he has been committed to as state senator as well. There are some Minnesota twists: 'We'll shovel sidewalks, build shelters, and finally reopen public spaces,' he wrote on X about his platform. 'I'm here to fight for the people this city's left behind.' Fateh has been attacked with racist and Islamophobic comments by rightwing commentators in recent weeks. Charlie Kirk, the leader of Turning Point USA, claimed there has been an 'Islamic takeover' in the country and shared Fateh's video, saying people need to 'commit to stopping all third world immigration'. Fateh was born in Washington DC. Solve the daily Crossword
The Hill
21-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Minneapolis mayor to appeal after losing party endorsement to democratic socialist
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) is planning to file an appeal after he lost the Minneapolis Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's (DFL) endorsement to a democratic socialist challenger in a process that he argues was significantly flawed. The move comes after Frey lost the backing of the party in Minnesota affiliated with the national Democratic Party, to state Sen. Omar Fateh (D), who is running to Frey's left. The support of the city DFL party could be a boost for Fateh as he tries to oust the two-term incumbent mayor, but Frey and his supporters argue that the city convention endorsement process, which took place Saturday, was flawed. The city's mayoral race is a ranked choice election in which all candidates compete on the same ballot regardless of party. A Democrat is almost guaranteed to win the election in the heavily left-leaning city, and while a party endorsement doesn't clinch victory, it can be an advantage to the candidate. Fateh won support from at least 60 percent of delegates voting, marking the party's first endorsement of a mayoral candidate in 16 years, the Star Tribune reported. But the outlet reported that the process was the subject of significant confusion and scrutiny as counting the first round of voting took almost two hours to complete. Fateh led that round with about 44 percent of the vote to Frey's roughly 31.5 percent, leaving them as the only two candidates in contention for the endorsement. Technology issues led to the slowdown, party officials told the outlet. But motions to conduct the endorsement vote by paper ballots failed. By the time that a final vote was conducted by raising hands, many of Frey's supporters had left the convention, and Frey's indicated that he will appeal the result to the state party. 'This election should be decided by the entire city rather than the small group of people who became delegates, particularly in light of the extremely flawed and irregular conduct of this convention,' said Frey campaign manager Sam Schulenberg in a statement. 'Voters will now have a clear choice between the records and leadership of Sen. Fateh and Mayor Frey. We look forward to taking our vision to the voters in November.' The Hill has reached out to the city party and Fateh's campaign for comment. Fateh said in a post on X that he's 'incredibly honored' to be the endorsed candidate in the race. 'This endorsement is a message that Minneapolis residents are done with broken promises, vetoes, and politics as usual,' he said. 'It's a mandate to build a city that works for all of us.'
Indian Express
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Fact or fiction? 7 memoirs that blurred the line
Memoirs are built on the promise of honesty. They offer a raw, intimate look into lives touched by trauma, transformation, or triumph, and readers trust that what they are consuming is at least fundamentally true. However, recently, Raynor Winn's bestselling memoir, which was recently adapted for screen, found itself in the eye of a controversy after she was accused of fabricating parts of her widely acclaimed life story. Published in 2018, The Salt Path recounts Winn's 630-mile walk with her husband, Moth, along the South West Coast Path after losing their home and receiving a terminal diagnosis of corticobasal degeneration (CBD), a rare neurodegenerative condition. The story became an inspiration for those struggling with challenging medical diagnoses, and sold over two million copies worldwide. The recent controversy is only the latest in a long line of publishing betrayals. For decades, authors have published so-called true stories that turned o James Frey's memoir about drug addiction and recovery skyrocketed after Oprah chose it for her Book Club. Brutal, unflinching, and famously detailing a root canal with no anesthesia and an 87-day jail sentence, it felt almost too intense to be true. In 2006, The Smoking Gun revealed that Frey had fabricated or grossly exaggerated key parts of the story. He had never been in a fatal accident, never served serious jail time, and had embellished nearly every detail of his 'rock bottom.' Oprah, feeling misled, called him back on air to publicly rebuke him. Frey's publisher issued a disclaimer. Frey, meanwhile, pivoted back to fiction with Bright Shiny Morning. Claiming to be a half-Native foster child raised in gang-infested South Central L.A., 'Margaret B. Jones' delivered a gripping account of violence, survival, and resilience. Critics hailed Love and Consequences as authentic and vital, until the author's real sister stepped in. Margaret B Jones was actually Margaret Seltzer, a white woman raised in suburban Los Angeles and educated at private school. Her entire memoir was fiction. Photos, staged interviews, even 'foster siblings' had been fabricated to sell the illusion. The book was recalled immediately, with only 19,000 copies in circulation. Seltzer's defense that she was trying to give a voice to unheard communities was dismissed as exploitation. Misha Defonseca's story was almost too miraculous to believe. At age 7, she claimed, she walked 1,900 miles across Nazi-occupied Europe to find her deported parents, lived with wolves, snuck into the Warsaw Ghetto, and killed a German soldier in self-defense. The book struggled in the US but became a massive bestseller overseas and was adapted into a French film. Eleven years later, researchers unearthed documents showing that Defonseca was Catholic and had been enrolled in a school in Brussels during the time she claimed to be wandering Europe. Her real name was Monique De Wael. She eventually confessed, saying the fabricated story reflected her emotional truth. Holocaust scholars were outraged, warning that such stories gave ammunition to deniers and distorted real survivor accounts. Clifford Irving pulled off a con that briefly fooled one of America's top publishers. Claiming to have secured the cooperation of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, Irving presented forged letters and fake interviews to McGraw-Hill, who gave him a $765,000 advance for the exclusive memoir. But the hoax unraveled when Hughes himself publicly denounced the book via a phone call with reporters. Irving's forgeries were exposed, and he served 17 months in prison for fraud. The incident remains one of the most infamous literary scams ever, later adapted into the film The Hoax starring Richard Gere. It exposed the publishing industry's blind spots. When Stern magazine announced it had uncovered Adolf Hitler's personal diaries, sixty volumes hidden since WWII, it was hailed as a historic breakthrough. The diaries were said to be recovered from a crashed plane and authenticated by historian Hugh Trevor-Roper. But the story fell apart within weeks. Forensic analysis revealed the paper, ink, and glue were all post-war. The 'diaries' were fakes created by forger Konrad Kujau, who had specialised in selling counterfeit Nazi memorabilia. He and the journalist who facilitated the deal both went to prison. The scandal cost Stern millions and embarrassed historians worldwide. Marketed as a touching memoir of a Cherokee boy raised by his grandparents in the Appalachian Mountains, The Education of Little Tree was beloved for its gentle wisdom and spiritual tone. It sold over a million copies and became a classroom favorite. But Forrest Carter was actually Asa Carter, a segregationist speechwriter for George Wallace and a former KKK (Ku Klux Klan) member. He had no Cherokee heritage, and the book's portrayal of Native American life was riddled with stereotypes and inaccuracies. Despite being exposed as early as the late 1970s, the book continued to sell and was even adapted into a film. Oprah recommended it on-air in 1994, later retracting her endorsement when she learned the truth. Today, it is classified as fiction, but many readers still believe it is an authentic memoir. Presented as the real diary of a teenage girl who spirals into drug addiction and dies young, Go Ask Alice was published without an author and claimed to be 'real.' Its harrowing portrayal of sex, drugs, and despair became a cautionary tale for generations of students. But no one could verify the girl's identity and no family ever came forward. Eventually, youth counselor Beatrice Sparks admitted to editing and 'enhancing' the diary. Over time, critics determined that much of it had likely been fabricated or written entirely by Sparks herself. Despite mounting evidence, the book remains on school reading lists and is still classified as nonfiction in some libraries. Sparks went on to publish other 'diary' memoirs, many of which followed the same sensationalist, moralising formula.
UPI
20-07-2025
- Politics
- UPI
Minneapolis mayor loses party endorsement for November election
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, right, pictured in 2023 during a press conference about an investigation into police conduct in the 2020 murder of George Floyd, lost the the Democratic party's backing in this November's mayoral election to state Sen. Omar Fateh. Photo by Craig Lassig/EPA July 20 (UPI) -- The Minneapolis mayor during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests has lost the backing of the Democratic party to a Somali-American after a contested vote by members of the party. Omar Fateh, 35, a state Senator, won the mayoral endorsement over Jacob Frey, who has held the office since 2018. Fateh is the first Somali-American to serve in the state legislature since 2018 and received 60% of the delegates at the Minneapolis DFL convention Saturday, despite complaints from the Frey campaign about the election process. Frey took issue with electronic balloting at the convention, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and said he would appeal the vote. "This election should be decided by the entire city rather than the small group of people who became delegates, particularly in light of the extremely flawed and irregular conduct of this convention," Frey's campaign manager office said in a statement. "Voters will now have a clear choice between the records and leadership of Sen. Fateh and Mayor Frey. We look forward to taking our vision to the voters in November." Frey was elected mayor in 2017 and again in 2021, and was in charge of Minneapolis during the 2020 BLM riots after George Floyd died at the hands of a white police officer.
