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All 13 seats on the Minneapolis City Council 7 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2017 Minneapolis City Council election was held on November 7, 2017, to elect the members of the Minneapolis City Council. The political composition remained unchanged, with the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) retaining 12 seats and the Green Party of Minnesota one seat. Three DFL incumbents were defeated by intraparty opponents. The new City Council convened on January 8, 2018.
The Minneapolis City Council is the governing body of the City of Minneapolis. It consists of 13 members, elected from separate wards to four-year terms. The Council is dominated by members of the DFL, with a total of 12 members. The Green Party of Minnesota has one member, Cam Gordon.
The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) is a center-left political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is affiliated with the U.S. Democratic Party. Formed by a merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the left-wing Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party in 1944, the DFL is one of only two state Democratic party affiliates of a different name.
The Green Party of Minnesota is a green political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Green Party of the United States.
Jacob Frey is the mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota. A member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, he was elected to the Minneapolis City Council in 2013, representing the Third Ward.
The 13 members of the City Council were elected from single-member districts via instant-runoff voting, commonly known as ranked choice voting, for four-year terms. Voters had the option of ranking up to three candidates in order of preference. Municipal elections in Minnesota are officially nonpartisan, although candidates were able to identify with a political party on the ballot. Write-in candidates must have filed a request with the Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services Division for votes for them to be counted.
A single-member district or single-member constituency is an electoral district that returns one officeholder to a body with multiple members such as a legislature. This is also sometimes called single-winner voting or winner takes all. The alternative are multi-member districts, or the election of a body by the whole electorate voting as one constituency.
Instant-runoff voting (IRV) or Ranked choice voting (RCV) is a type of ranked preferential voting method used in single-seat elections with more than two candidates. Instead of indicating support for only one candidate, voters in IRV elections can rank the candidates in order of preference. Ballots are initially counted for each voter's top choice. If a candidate has more than half of the vote based on first-choices, that candidate wins. If not, then the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. The voters who selected the defeated candidate as a first choice then have their votes added to the totals of their next choice. This process continues until a candidate has more than half of the votes. When the field is reduced to two, it has become an "instant runoff" that allows a comparison of the top two candidates head-to-head.
A write-in candidate is a candidate in an election whose name does not appear on the ballot, but for whom voters may vote nonetheless by writing in the person's name. The system is almost totally confined to elections in the United States. Some U.S. states and local jurisdictions allow a voter to affix a sticker, with the write-in candidate's name, to the ballot in lieu of actually writing in the candidate's name. Write-in candidacies are sometimes a result of a candidate being legally or procedurally ineligible to run under his or her own name or party; write-in candidacies may be permitted where term limits bar an incumbent candidate from being officially nominated for, or being listed on the ballot for, re-election. In some cases, write-in campaigns have been organized to support a candidate who is not personally involved in running; this may be a form of draft campaign.
Ward | Incumbent | Candidates | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Party | First elected | Name | Party | Party endorsement | |
1 | Kevin Reich | DFL | 2009 | John Hayden [3] | Independent | |
Jillia Pessenda [4] | DFL | |||||
Kevin Reich [4] | DFL | |||||
2 | Cam Gordon | Green | 2005 | Cam Gordon [5] | Green | Fifth District Green Party [6] |
3 | Jacob Frey [nb 1] | DFL | 2013 | Tim Bildsoe [7] | DFL | |
Steve Fletcher [8] | DFL | Minneapolis DFL [9] | ||||
Ginger Jentzen [10] | Socialist Alternative | Socialist Alternative [11] | ||||
Samantha Pree-Stinson [8] | Green | Fifth District Green Party [6] | ||||
4 | Barb Johnson | DFL | 1997 | Phillipe Cunningham [12] | DFL | |
Stephanie Gasca [13] | DFL | |||||
Dana Hansen [14] | Libertarian | Libertarian Party of Minnesota [15] | ||||
Barb Johnson [16] | DFL | |||||
5 | Blong Yang | DFL | 2013 | Jeremiah Ellison [17] | DFL | Minneapolis DFL [18] |
Cathy Spann [17] | DFL | |||||
Raeisha Williams [17] | DFL | |||||
Blong Yang [17] | DFL | |||||
6 | Abdi Warsame | DFL | 2013 | Mohamud Noor [19] | DFL | |
Abdi Warsame [19] | DFL | Minneapolis DFL [20] | ||||
Fadumo Yusuf [21] | Republican | Minneapolis City Republican Committee [22] | ||||
7 | Lisa Goodman | DFL | 1997 | Janne Flisrand [23] | DFL | |
Lisa Goodman [24] | DFL | |||||
Joe Kovacs [21] | Republican | Minneapolis City Republican Committee [22] | ||||
Teqen Zéa-Aida [25] | DFL | |||||
8 | Elizabeth Glidden [nb 1] | DFL | 2005 | David Holsinger [26] | Libertarian | Libertarian Party of Minnesota [15] |
Andrea Jenkins [27] | DFL | Minneapolis DFL [28] | ||||
April Kane [26] | DFL | |||||
Terry White [5] | Green | Fifth District Green Party [6] | ||||
9 | Alondra Cano | DFL | 2013 | Alondra Cano [29] | DFL | Minneapolis DFL [30] |
Mohamed Farah [29] | DFL | |||||
Ronald Peterson [31] | Republican | |||||
Gary Schiff [32] | DFL | |||||
10 | Lisa Bender | DFL | 2013 | Lisa Bender [33] | DFL | Minneapolis DFL [34] |
Bruce Lundeen [35] | Republican | Minneapolis City Republican Committee [22] | ||||
Saralyn Romanishan [36] | DFL | |||||
David Schorn [37] | DFL | |||||
11 | John Quincy | DFL | 2009 | Erica Mauter [38] | DFL | |
John Quincy [39] | DFL | |||||
Jeremy Schroeder [39] | DFL | |||||
12 | Andrew Johnson | DFL | 2013 | Harrison Bullard [40] | Independent [nb 2] | |
Will Jaeger [41] | Independent | |||||
Andrew Johnson [42] | DFL | Minneapolis DFL [42] | ||||
13 | Linea Palmisano | DFL | 2013 | Linea Palmisano [43] | DFL | Minneapolis DFL [28] |
Bob Reuer [44] | Independent |
There were clear winners in several wards on election night. Green Council Member Cam Gordon (Ward 2), who did not have an opponent, won re-election. Other council members who won on election night include DFLers Lisa Goodman (Ward 7), Lisa Bender (Ward 10), Andrew Johnson (Ward 12), and Linea Palmisano (Ward 13). Ward 8 DFL candidate Andrea Jenkins also won, replacing retiring DFL Council Member Elizabeth Glidden. Wards which did not have a clear winner underwent several rounds of vote transfers on November 8. [45]
Cameron A. "Cam" Gordon is an American politician and member of the Green Party in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has been an elected member of the Minneapolis City Council since 2006. He was a co-founder of the Green Party of Minnesota and has been called "the most prominent Green elected official in the US."
Elizabeth Peterson "Lisa" Bender is an American Minnesota DFL politician and city planner living in Minneapolis, currently serving her second term on the Minneapolis City Council as a representative of the city's 10th Ward. In 2018, she was unanimously elected president of the Minneapolis City Council.
Andrew Johnson is an American politician and systems engineer from Minneapolis, currently representing the city's 12th Ward on the Minneapolis City Council. Formerly president of the Longfellow Community Council, Johnson was first elected in 2013 as a member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) and became the council's youngest sitting member at 29 years old. During his first term, he has focused on ridding the city's code of ordinances of outdated, contradictory, and burdensome rules.
Three incumbents lost re-election. DFL Council President Barb Johnson (Ward 4) lost to DFL candidate Phillipe Cunningham, DFL Council Member Blong Yang (Ward 5) to DFL candidate Jeremiah Ellison, and DFL Council Member John Quincy (Ward 11) to DFL candidate Jeremy Schroeder. DFL Council Members Kevin Reich (Ward 1), Abdi Warsame (Ward 6), and Alondra Cano (Ward 9) retained their seats.
Phillipe Cunningham is the city councilperson for Minneapolis Ward 4 and one of the first openly transgender men to be elected to public office in the United States. In the Minneapolis City Council election, 2017, Cunningham won over 20-year incumbent Barb Johnson by 157 votes. Cunningham identifies as black, queer, and trans.
John M. Quincy is an American politician and marketing consultant living in Minneapolis. From 2010–2018, he served two terms on the Minneapolis City Council as a representative of the city's 11th Ward. Quincy moved to Minneapolis in 1994 and sought the endorsement of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) in 2006 for a seat on the Minneapolis Board of Education which he did not receive. He won both the DFL's endorsement and the 2009 City Council election and served as the head of several committees. He has also acted as a member of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport's Noise Oversight Committee.
Abdi Warsame is a Somali-American politician and member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After moving to London as an asylum seeker, he immigrated to Minnesota in 2006. In November 2013, he was elected to the Minneapolis City Council, becoming the first Somali official to be elected to the position. Warsame was reelected for a second term in 2017.
In Ward 3, DFL candidate Steve Fletcher won over Socialist Alternative candidate Ginger Jentzen, who won the most first-choice votes but did not gain sufficient transfer votes. This was the first occurrence of the initial leader not ending up the winner of an election in Minneapolis since it switched to ranked-choice voting in 2009. [46] A similar situation subsequently occurred in Ward 4 in which Johnson lost to Cunningham.
Socialist Alternative (SA) is a Trotskyist political party in the United States. It describes itself as "a national organization fighting in our workplaces, communities, and campuses against the exploitation and injustices people face every day" and "a community of activists fighting against budget cuts in public services; fighting for living wage jobs and militant, democratic unions; and people of all colors speaking out against racism and attacks on immigrants, students organizing against tuition hikes and war, women and men fighting sexism and homophobia".
Jenkins and Cunningham are the first transgender persons to be elected to the City Council. [47]
Party | Candidates | 1st Choice Votes | Seats | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | % | ∆pp | No. | ∆No. | % | |||
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | 29 | 84,203 | 82.69 | +3.38 | 12 | 0 | 92.31 | |
Green Party of Minnesota | 3 | 7,926 | 7.78 | +0.42 | 1 | 0 | 7.69 | |
Socialist Alternative | 1 | 3,297 | 3.24 | +1.16 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | |
Republican Party of Minnesota | 4 | 1,365 | 1.34 | +0.68 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | |
Libertarian Party of Minnesota | 2 | 607 | 0.60 | +0.34 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | |
Independent | 4 | 3,958 | 3.89 | −4.14 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | |
Write-in | N/A | 472 | 0.46 | −0.38 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | |
Total | 101,828 | 100.00 | ±0.00 | 13 | ±0 | 100.00 | ||
Valid votes | 101,828 | 96.13 | +1.97 | |||||
Overvotes | 7 | 0.01 | −0.03 | |||||
Undervotes | 4,093 | 3.86 | −1.94 | |||||
Turnout (out of 249,512 registered voters) [48] | 105,928 | 42.45 | +9.07 |
Party | Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | Round 2 | % Final | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Kevin Reich | 45.97 | 4,015 | 4,296 | 49.19 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Jillia Pessenda | 44.03 | 3,846 | 4,112 | 47.08 | |
Independent | John Hayden | 9.77 | 853 | |||
Write-in | N/A | 0.23 | 20 | |||
Exhausted ballots | 326 | 3.73 | ||||
Valid votes | 8,734 | |||||
Threshold | 4,368 | |||||
Undervotes | 130 | |||||
Turnout (out of 19,722 registered voters) [48] | 44.94 | 8,864 | ||||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [49] |
Party | Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Green Party of Minnesota | Cam Gordon | 97.27 | 5,912 | |
Write-in | N/A | 2.73 | 166 | |
Valid votes | 6,078 | |||
Maximum possible threshold | 3,518 | |||
Overvotes | 1 | |||
Undervotes | 955 | |||
Turnout (out of 17,702 registered voters) [48] | 39.74 | 7,034 | ||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [50] |
Party | Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | % Final | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Steve Fletcher | 28.24 | 2,709 | 3,103 | 4,861 | 50.68 | |
Socialist Alternative | Ginger Jentzen | 34.37 | 3,297 | 3,598 | 3,844 | 40.08 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Tim Bildsoe | 26.61 | 2,552 | 2,734 | |||
Green Party of Minnesota | Samantha Pree-Stinson | 10.50 | 1,007 | ||||
Write-in | N/A | 0.28 | 27 | ||||
Exhausted ballots | 157 | 887 | 9.25 | ||||
Valid votes | 9,592 | ||||||
Threshold | 4,797 | ||||||
Undervotes | 285 | ||||||
Turnout (out of 24,522 registered voters) [48] | 40.28 | 9,877 | |||||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [51] |
Party | Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | Round 2 | % Final | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Phillipe Cunningham | 40.66 | 2,140 | 2,605 | 49.50 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Barb Johnson | 42.90 | 2,258 | 2,430 | 46.17 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Stephanie Gasca | 12.05 | 634 | |||
Libertarian Party of Minnesota | Dana Hansen | 4.18 | 220 | |||
Write-in | N/A | 0.21 | 11 | |||
Exhausted ballots | 228 | 4.33 | ||||
Valid votes | 5,263 | |||||
Threshold | 2,632 | |||||
Undervotes | 86 | |||||
Turnout (out of 17,156 registered voters) [48] | 31.18 | 5,349 | ||||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [52] |
Party | Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | Round 2 | % Final | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Jeremiah Ellison | 47.13 | 1,987 | 2,313 | 54.86 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Blong Yang | 38.35 | 1,617 | 1,769 | 41.96 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Raeisha Williams | 10.56 | 445 | |||
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Cathy Spann | 3.77 | 159 | |||
Write-in | N/A | 0.19 | 8 | |||
Exhausted ballots | 134 | 3.18 | ||||
Valid votes | 4,216 | |||||
Threshold | 2,109 | |||||
Undervotes | 62 | |||||
Turnout (out of 15,302 registered voters) [48] | 27.96 | 4,278 | ||||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [53] |
Party | Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Abdi Warsame | 50.17 | 3,629 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Mohamud Noor | 46.86 | 3,390 | |
Republican Party of Minnesota | Fadumo Yusuf | 2.53 | 183 | |
Write-in | Tiffini Forslund | 0.08 | 6 | |
Write-in | N/A | 0.36 | 26 | |
Valid votes | 7,234 | |||
Threshold | 3,618 | |||
Undervotes | 163 | |||
Turnout (out of 15,725 registered voters) [48] | 47.04 | 7,397 | ||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [54] |
Party | Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Lisa Goodman | 52.26 | 4,742 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Janne Flisrand | 31.21 | 2,832 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Teqen Zéa-Aida | 9.79 | 888 | |
Republican Party of Minnesota | Joe Kovacs | 6.60 | 599 | |
Write-in | N/A | 0.14 | 13 | |
Valid votes | 9,074 | |||
Maximum possible threshold | 4,628 | |||
Overvotes | 3 | |||
Undervotes | 178 | |||
Turnout (out of 20,789 registered voters) [48] | 44.52 | 9,255 | ||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [55] |
Party | Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Andrea Jenkins | 73.09 | 5,762 | |
Green Party of Minnesota | Terry White | 12.77 | 1,007 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | April Kane | 9.01 | 710 | |
Libertarian Party of Minnesota | David Holsinger | 4.91 | 387 | |
Write-in | N/A | 0.22 | 17 | |
Valid votes | 7,883 | |||
Maximum possible threshold | 4,138 | |||
Overvotes | 1 | |||
Undervotes | 391 | |||
Turnout (out of 18,090 registered voters) [48] | 45.74 | 8,275 | ||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [56] |
Party | Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | Round 2 | % Final | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Alondra Cano | 47.53 | 2,623 | 2,982 | 54.03 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Gary Schiff | 29.43 | 1,624 | 1,934 | 35.04 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Mohamed Farah | 19.64 | 1,084 | |||
Republican Party of Minnesota | Ronald Peterson | 3.03 | 167 | |||
Write-in | N/A | 0.38 | 21 | |||
Exhausted ballots | 603 | 10.93 | ||||
Valid votes | 5,519 | |||||
Threshold | 2,760 | |||||
Undervotes | 131 | |||||
Turnout (out of 13,111 registered voters) [48] | 43.09 | 5,650 | ||||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [57] |
Party | Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Lisa Bender | 64.34 | 4,883 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Saralyn Romanishan | 20.57 | 1,561 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | David Schorn | 9.34 | 709 | |
Republican Party of Minnesota | Bruce Lundeen | 5.48 | 416 | |
Write-in | N/A | 0.26 | 20 | |
Valid votes | 7,589 | |||
Maximum possible threshold | 3,956 | |||
Undervotes | 322 | |||
Turnout (out of 20,942 registered voters) [48] | 37.78 | 7,911 | ||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [58] |
Party | Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | Round 2 | % Final | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Jeremy Schroeder | 35.26 | 3,230 | 4,757 | 51.93 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | John Quincy | 34.93 | 3,200 | 3,981 | 43.46 | |
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Erica Mauter | 29.43 | 2,696 | |||
Write-in | N/A | 0.37 | 34 | |||
Exhausted ballots | 422 | 4.61 | ||||
Valid votes | 9,160 | |||||
Threshold | 4,581 | |||||
Undervotes | 432 | |||||
Turnout (out of 20,264 registered voters) [48] | 47.34 | 9,592 | ||||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [59] |
Party | Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Andrew Johnson | 87.15 | 8,874 | |
Independent | Will Jaeger | 9.40 | 957 | |
Independent [nb 2] | Harrison Bullard | 3.10 | 316 | |
Write-in | N/A | 0.34 | 35 | |
Valid votes | 10,182 | |||
Maximum possible threshold | 5,353 | |||
Undervotes | 522 | |||
Turnout (out of 22,735 registered voters) [48] | 47.08 | 10,704 | ||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [60] |
Party | Candidate | % 1st Choice | Round 1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party | Linea Palmisano | 83.19 | 9,404 | |
Independent | Bob Reuer | 16.21 | 1,832 | |
Write-in | N/A | 0.60 | 68 | |
Valid votes | 11,304 | |||
Maximum possible threshold | 5,872 | |||
Overvotes | 2 | |||
Undervotes | 436 | |||
Turnout (out of 23,452 registered voters) [48] | 50.07 | 11,742 | ||
Source: Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services [61] |
After the election, which resulted in the defeat of Council President Barb Johnson, it was reported that DFL Council Members Lisa Bender, Linea Palmisano, and Council Member-elect Andrea Jenkins were seeking to replace her. [62] When the new City Council convened on January 8, 2018, it unanimously elected Bender to be president. [63]
Following Bender's election, it was revealed that Jenkins and Palmisano were respectively seeking to be elected president and vice-president as a ticket. Bender said that while she had the votes to defeat them and install her supporters as chairs of choice committees, she wanted to avoid the Council splitting into factions that had sometimes characterized the previous City Council. As part of a deal to get her unanimous support and to present a united front, Bender agreed that Jenkins would be vice-president, who was also elected unanimously. [63] [64] A new committee structure was agreed to and council members that did not nominally support her would be given choice committee chairs. [64] Bender said that all council members had to compromise. A final deal was not reached until January 7. [63]
The 2005 Minneapolis municipal elections in the U.S. state of Minnesota held a scheduled primary election on 13 September and a general election on 8 November. Voters in the city elected:
The 2010 Minnesota gubernatorial election was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2010 to elect the 40th Governor of the U.S. state of Minnesota for a four-year term to begin in January 2011. The general election was contested by the major party candidates State Representative Tom Emmer (R–Delano), former U.S. Senator Mark Dayton (DFL), and Independence Party candidate Tom Horner. After a very close race, Dayton was elected governor. Emmer would be elected to the United States House of Representatives four years later.
A general election was held in Minneapolis on November 3, 2009. Minneapolis's mayor was up for election as well as all the seats on the City Council, the two elected seats on the Board of Estimate and Taxation, and all the seats on the Park and Recreation Board. This was the first election held in Minneapolis that used ranked choice voting, a collective term for instant-runoff voting and the single transferable vote.
Andy Exley is an American politician and member of the Green Party of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He earned his bachelor's degree from Carleton College in 2003. He served as the chairman of the Green Party of Minnesota from June 2008. He was a candidate for the Minneapolis City Council, Ward 6 in the 2009 Minneapolis municipal elections. Minneapolis elections use ranked choice voting; Exley received 165 first place votes for 8.55% of the vote.
Gary Schiff is an American politician and activist who represented Ward 9 on the Minneapolis City Council. A member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), he was first elected in 2001 and re-elected in 2005 and 2009. Prior to his political career, Schiff was involved with a variety of activist groups and causes ranging from human rights with the Human Rights Campaign, to historic preservation with Save Our Shubert.
The 2013 Minneapolis mayoral election was held on November 5, 2013 to elect the Mayor of Minneapolis for a four-year term. This was the second mayoral election in the city's history to use instant-runoff voting, popularly known as ranked choice voting, first implemented in the city's 2009 elections. Municipal elections in Minnesota are nonpartisan, although candidates are able to identify with a political party on the ballot. After incumbent Mayor R. T. Rybak announced in late 2012 that he would not seek a fourth term, 35 candidates began campaigns to replace him. Many of these candidates sought the endorsement of the Minneapolis unit of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), though the convention ultimately ended with no endorsement.
The 2013 Minneapolis City Council elections were held on November 5, 2013 to elect the 13 members of the Minneapolis City Council for four-year terms. 10 races produced a winner in the first round and the remaining three in the second round. Candidates affiliated with the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) won all 12 of the seats where they had fielded a candidate, and the Green Party of Minnesota won the remaining one seat.
The 2009 Minneapolis City Council elections were held on November 3, 2009 to elect the 13 members of the Minneapolis City Council for four-year terms. Candidates affiliated with the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) won 12 seats and the Green Party of Minnesota one seat.
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Nekima Valdez Levy-Pounds is an American lawyer, professor, activist, minister and writer. She served as president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP from 2015–2016. She also serves on and has founded a variety of organizations that focus on issues of racial equality and disparity in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area.
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.
The city of St. Paul, Minnesota held an election on November 7, 2017, to elect its next mayor, which was won by city councilman Melvin Carter III. Chris Coleman, who served as mayor from 2006, did not run for a fourth term and instead will run for Governor of Minnesota in 2018. This was the second mayoral election in St. Paul to use ranked-choice voting. Municipal elections in Minnesota are non-partisan, although candidates can identify with a political party.
A general election was held in Minneapolis on November 7, 2017. Minneapolis's mayor was up for election as well as all the seats on the City Council, the two elected seats on the Board of Estimate and Taxation, and all the seats on the Park and Recreation Board. Voters were able to rank up to three candidates for each office in order of preference.