WASHINGTON — The Minnesota affiliate of the Democratic Party rescinded its endorsement on Aug. 21 of an anti-Israel candidate in the Minneapolis mayoral race over voting irregularities at its nominating convention in July.
The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s Constitution, Bylaws and Rules Committee determined that the vote to endorse state senator Omar Fateh was invalid, and barred its Minneapolis branch from holding a second nominating convention.
The committee’s report describes a chaotic convention involving a lost credentials book for an entire city ward, a chief vote counter suffering from a debilitating migraine headache and a late-night rules suspension that allowed Fateh to be nominated by a show of badges.
Fateh is a democratic socialist and the US-born son of Somali immigrants campaigning to unseat Democratic incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey, who has stayed in the race despite losing the DFL endorsement.
Fateh is staunchly opposed to Israel.
In a Democratic Socialists of America questionnaire from February, he pledged to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and to refrain from “any and all affiliation with the Israeli government or Zionist lobby groups,” including AIPAC, Christians United for Israel, J Street, Democratic Majority for Israel and the Jewish Community Relations Council.
His campaign includes staffers who have posted on social media about supporting the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
‘The root of the problem’
David Gilbert-Pederson, who is listed as a Fateh staff member in his campaign financial filings, said in a December, 2023 panel discussion about Oct. 7 that “all resistance to that kind of imperial domination is justified.”
“Unconditional solidarity does not mean that we get to say, ‘Oh, this tactic you did, we don’t really like that’ or ‘We agree with you, but I think that some of your methods are too extreme,’” Gilbert-Pederson said in remarks first reported by Jewish Insider.
“That’s not what unconditional solidarity means.”
Fateh’s communications manager, Anya Smith-Kooiman, wrote in a now-deleted social-media post in 2024 that Israel “does not have a ‘right’ to exist.”
One month after the Oct. 7 massacre, she said that “the root of the problem is a colonial government segregating, ethnically cleansing, murdering Palestinians, stealing their land with impunity and not expecting a resistance group to violently fight back.”
After his endorsement was revoked, Fateh accused Frey and his supporters of unfairly influencing the DFL rules committee.
“This is exactly what Minneapolis voters are sick of — the insider games, the backroom decisions and feeling like our voice doesn’t matter in our own city,” Fateh said on Aug. 21 in a video message.
Frey welcomed the decision.
“I’m proud to be a member of a party that believes in correcting our mistakes, and I’m glad that this inaccurate and obviously flawed process was set aside,” the mayor wrote.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who represents parts of Minneapolis, said on Aug. 21 that the revocation of Fateh’s endorsement was “unacceptable.”
“It is inexcusable to overturn the DFL endorsement from Omar Fateh. A small group, a majority living outside Minneapolis, met privately to overturn the will of Minneapolis delegates who volunteered, organized and participated in a months-long DFL process.”
