The 2025 Minneapolis City Council election will occur in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States on November 4, 2025. The Minneapolis City Council is made up of 13 members representing different parts of the city. Members elected in 2025 will serve four-year terms.[1] Council members will be elected alongside elections for mayor and other municipal offices.[2]
This is the first Minneapolis City Council election since 2017 in which members are elected to the usual 4-year terms, rather than 2-year terms. In 2020, voters passed a ballot measure to elect council members to two separate, two-year terms in 2021 and 2023. This measure was meant to keep city council and mayoral terms concurrent.[3]
The 2023 election saw a progressive-leaning and democratic socialist majority elected to the council.[4] Prior to 2023, the more moderate faction held the majority.[5] The progressive faction is associated with Mpls for the Many, a political group focusing on affordable housing and public safety reforms, and it has support from the Twin Cities chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Its members include council members Payne, Chavez, Wonsley, Chughtai, Chowdhury, Ellison, and Cashman.[6][7] The moderate faction, represented by the All of Mpls PAC, includes council members Jenkins, Rainville, Vetaw, Palmisano, and (formerly) Koski.[8][9] Councilmember Jamal Osman was not endorsed by either PAC in 2023 but has voted more often with the progressives.[10] Emily Koski was the council's most reliable swing vote, supporting the moderates and progressives evenly.[11] Koski is retiring from the council. She launched a campaign for mayor, but withdrew in April.[12]
In December 2024, the mayor’s 2025 city budget was approved by the council with a record 71 amendments. Mayor Jacob Frey, associated with the moderate faction, vetoed that amended budget (the first veto of its kind in city history) citing concerns about fiscal irresponsibility and higher property taxes. In turn, the council overrode the veto with a supermajority vote of 9–4, officially enacting its version of the budget.[13] The amended budget included a $1.9 billion allocation with a 6.8% tax levy increase, diverging from Mayor Frey’s initial plan, which had an 8.1% property tax levy cap (later adjusted to 8.3%).[14]
Issues expected to significantly influence the election include the city's handling of homeless encampments, which has drawn criticism over effectiveness and oversight;[15][16] rising concerns about public safety and policing strategies amid recent incidents of violence and strained relationships between law enforcement leadership and city politics;[17][18][19] and tensions surrounding interactions with the federal government.[20][21]
Electoral system
The 13 members of the city council are elected from single-member districts via instant-runoff voting, commonly known as ranked choice voting. Voters have the option of ranking up to three candidates in order of preference. Municipal elections in Minnesota are officially nonpartisan, although candidates are able to identify with a political party or principle on the ballot. Write-in candidates must file a request with the Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services Division for votes for them to be counted.
Ward 1 is based in northeast Minneapolis, stretching from the neighborhoods of Waite Park and Columbia Park down to Como.[25] The incumbent is Democrat and council president Elliott Payne, who was elected with 89.71% of the vote in 2023.[26]
Ward 2 is the only seat on the council not held by the DFL. The party's convention on 3 May 2025 adjourned without endorsing a candidate. Former state representative Shelley Madore led with 53 percent of delegate votes, but short of the 60% required. Wonsley, who did not seek party backing, saw supporters’ ballots ruled invalid.[42][43] Wonsely celebrated the convention outcome.[44]
Candidates
Filed
Michael Baskins (DFL), write-in candidate for this ward in 2023[45]
Jenkins was re-elected in the second round of ranked-choice-voting in 2023 after receiving fewer first-choice votes than opponent Soren Stevenson (DFL). Jenkins won in 2023 with 43.32% of first-choice votes and 50.24% of final-round votes.[26] Stevenson announced his bid for the ward in December 2024.
Chughtai is challenged by Lydia Millard, Executive Director of the Stevens Square Community Organization and Target corporate employee.[89] Prior to the ward convention, it was discovered that Millard was claiming a house in Ward 1 as her primary residence for tax purposes in 2024.[90] Millard explained that the house was intended to house women who had recently been released from incarceration, but that this had become untenable due to water damage that had occurred in January 2024.[90]
Millard was supported by We Love Minneapolis PAC. prior to its dissolving, which received thirty thousand dollars from Hornig Properties, a corporate landlord in Ward 10, during their first quarter of operation.[91] Claims have been made that the Millard team received assistance door knocking on Hornig properties.[91] Jim Rubin, owner of Mint Properties,[92] another prominent Ward 10 landlord, has been identified as a leader of the PAC.[93]
The ward saw no DFL endorsement when Chughtai earned 52 percent of the vote to Millard’s 47 percent and delegates unanimously voted to end the convention early rather than hold further votes.[94] Chughtai alleges that she was assaulted during the convention by one of Millard's supporters.[95]
Ward 11 contains the neighborhoods of Diamond Lake, Hale, Page, Northrop, Tangletown, Wenonah, and Windom, as well as a portion of Keewaydin.[25] The incumbent is Democrat Emily Koski, who was re-elected with 88.36% of the first-round vote in 2023.[26] Koski is not seeking re-election, focusing on a bid for mayor,[24] Upon her withdrawal from the mayoral election in April 2025,[99] Koski declined to re-enter the race for her council seat.[100]
Challenger Becka Thompson, an elected member of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, attracted controversy in May when she said that, for some voters, she lacked "the desired amount of melanin" to run against incumbent Aurin Chowdhury, who is Bengali American.[104] Thompson apologized for the remark, but then attracted further controversy in July with a similar remark in a TikTok video in which she asserted that council vice president Aisha Chughtai attracted votes in her successful 2021 campaign in Ward 10 because she is a "nice, young, you know, ethnic woman."[105]
While there is no primary in Minneapolis municipal elections, parties are able to endorse candidates. Support from the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party can provide crucial support and infrastructure.[112] Caucuses for each precinct were held on April 8, 2025, to elect delegates for ward and city conventions. At ward conventions, running from mid-April through early June, the party endorses city council candidates who receive over 60% of delegate votes; city conventions endorse all other candidates.[113]
The convention for Ward 2, largely located on and around the University of Minnesota campus, saw controversy and legal action. Originally scheduled for May 3, the convention was rescheduled multiple times by Minneapolis DFL chair Conrad Zbikowski. After students and DSA incumbent Robin Wonsley argued that the new date of June 1 would exclude student voters, the Minneapolis DFL Executive Committee reversed Zbikowski's decision.[114] Two delegates then sued the DFL over the reversal, and Zbikowski resigned.[115] The delegates' lawsuit failed and the convention was held on the original May 3 date.[116] At the convention, no candidate received the endorsement after fifty delegates were removed for supporting Wonsley.[42]
There was also no endorsement in Ward 5, where incumbent Jeremiah Ellison is retiring.[69]
At the Ward 7 convention, representing parts of Bde Maka Ska-Isles and downtown Minneapolis, incumbent Katie Cashman was defeated by Park Commissioner Elizabeth Shaffer, who won 61 percent of the endorsement vote.[117] Meanwhile, incumbent Ward 10 Councilor Aisha Chughtai fell short of the DFL endorsement, earning 52 percent of the vote to Lydia Millard’s 47 percent after a unanimous vote to end the convention early resulted in no endorsement for either candidate.
Incumbent candidates were endorsed in Wards 1, 3, 4, 9, 12, and 13. In open seats, Soren Stevenson was endorsed in Ward 8, and Jamison Whiting received the endorsement in Ward 11.[30]
Political action committees
The have been four main political action committees (PACs) raising funds to support or oppose candidates in Minneapolis in the 2025 election. "Minneapolis for the Many" has advocated progressive policies. "All of Mpls" has positioned itself as politically moderate. "We Love Minneapolis" promoted neoliberal policies -- following it being disbanded, a very similar organization called "Thrive MPLS" was created with an overlap in staff.
We Love Minneapolis
Registered in March 2025,[118] "We Love Minneapolis" is chaired by Andrea Corbin,[118]Republican Party of Minnesota donor and owner of Flower Bar in Lowry Hill East.[119] The organization seeks to influence the council toward policies considered more business-friendly.[119]
In an email circulated among City of Minneapolis employees in March 2025, PAC supporters Dana Swindler and Howard Paster indicated the group's aim to replace city councilors affiliated with the DSA with candidates more aligned with business interests.[120] The email identified Jim Rubin of Mint Properties as the PAC's leader at the time.[120]
Analysis conducted by "Minneapolis for the Many of the organization's first-quarter financial disclosures indicated that approximately 68% of We Love Minneapolis PAC’s funding came from property owners and landlords, several of whom have faced recent property violations.[119] Notable donors include the Horning family, prominent property owners in the Twin Cities area, and Chris Kohler, owner of a local property management firm. The PAC reported receiving $132,890 in donations during the first quarter, with many donors residing outside of Minneapolis.[119]
After being fined four thousand dollars for failing to properly disclose a contribution of $35,000 from Downtown Council and a contribution of $72,585 from the Minnesota Multi Housing Association, We Love Minneapolis PAC disbanded.[121] The day after We Love Minneapolis PAC disbanded, Thrive MPLS, a new PAC, was formed with an overlap in staff.[122] Just like We Love Minneapolis, Thrive Minneapolis opposes DSA and DSA aligned candidates.
Minneapolis for the Many
"Minneapolis for the Many" promotes progressive policies such as rent control, public housing expansion, and protection of homeless encampments. It offers assistance to DSA-supported candidates. It raised $213,714 in 2023.[123] In 2024, 87% of the PAC’s funding came from the Movement Voter PAC, a Massachusetts-based group.[124]
All of Mpls
"All of Mpls" positions itself as politically moderate, focusing on public safety, accountable policing and affordable housing.[125] 99% of its funding came from Minnesota residents and unions,[124] with $963,295 raised in 2023, making it the most financially robust of the three PACs.[126]
Notes
↑ Wonsley has used "Democratic Socialist" as the "political party or principle" on her ballot line. The Democratic Socialists of America is not a political party and Wonsley herself is an independent.
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