By Dayib Sheikh Ahmed
Having worked on three U.S. presidential campaigns two as a field organizer and one as an African-American and immigrant outreach director I have witnessed firsthand what motivates voters. Every successful campaign, no matter its scale, rests on three fundamental pillars the economy, ideology, and issues. Voters support what they understand and believe in; no one casts a ballot for something or someone they do not know. That simple truth lies at the heart of what is now unfolding in Minneapolis. Several candidates have entered the 2025 mayoral race, but two figures stand out: incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey and State Senator Omar Fatah, a dynamic young legislator who represents a new generation of civic leadership.
Mayor Frey, who has served since 2018, has maintained visible ties with the Somali community, and his public support for the Islamic call to prayer (Adhan) across Minneapolis was a symbolic act that resonated deeply within the Muslim community and earned him goodwill. Yet beneath that outreach lies a mixed record of governance marked by friction, vetoes, and missed opportunities. Since his 2021 reelection, Frey’s administration has faced growing tension with a more progressive City Council, with his office in August 2025 lamenting a “lack of collaboration” from the council. Critics, however, argue that the deeper issue is the mayor’s failure to build trust and shared ownership of the city’s challenges. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in June 2022 that Frey failed to meet the city charter’s requirement to hire the mandated number of police officers, revealing administrative negligence in maintaining essential public safety. He also vetoed the creation of a Labor Standards Board intended to strengthen worker representation further alienating organized labor and his veto of the George Floyd Square redevelopment plan, later overridden by the City Council, exposed his top-down leadership style and resistance to genuine collaboration.
Collectively, these actions depict a mayor whose rhetoric of inclusion contrasts with an increasingly cautious and centralized approach that alienates both progressives and moderates, leaving the city yearning for direction. To his credit, crime rates have declined from their 2020–2021 highs, and some community members commend his efforts to balance reform with safety and to establish a new police academy. Yet these modest gains cannot obscure the broader truth: under Mayor Frey, Minneapolis has struggled to rebuild public confidence, restore morale, or articulate a coherent vision for justice and renewal. His tenure has been defined more by reaction than reform a leadership model showing clear signs of exhaustion.
Against this backdrop, Senator Omar Fatah’s candidacy offers a compelling contrast: a new model of leadership grounded in inclusion, ethical clarity, and collaborative governance, qualities increasingly absent from Frey’s administration.
A Generational Shift
Senator Omar Fatah embodies this new era of leadership. His official endorsement by Minnesota’s Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL) is historic a Somali-American leader has moved from the margins of ethnic identity politics into the mainstream of urban governance. Fatah’s campaign is not built on slogans but on principles transparency, equity, and public trust. However, a familiar challenge has re-emerged within the Somali diaspora: internal division. Once again, influential voices within the community are campaigning against one of their own. Unlike the overt clan-based politics of earlier decades, these rifts are now wrapped in the language of “strategy,” “electability,” or “personal preference.”
In reality, much of the criticism directed at Fatah is less about his record and more about personality, envy, or the subtle influence of clan-based thinking. This phenomenon reflects a larger truth about democratic politics. In her influential book Dirty Politics Deception, Distraction, and Democracy, communication scholar Kathleen Hall Jamieson explains how modern campaigns often rely on deception, distraction, and conflict rather than honest policy debate. When political discourse shifts from issues to identity, rumor, or innuendo, democracy loses its substance. In our local Somali context, when members of the community expend energy undermining one of their own not on principle but on whispers and rivalries they become participants in the very politics of distraction Jamieson warns against. That is not political competition, it is communal self-sabotage. As someone who has been deeply involved in political campaigns, I have seen this dynamic repeatedly. Instead of celebrating competence and unity, communities fracture over short-term loyalties and personal grievances. Politics, we must remember, does not unify people by itself—leadership does. Leadership builds legitimacy not through perfection, but through purpose, clarity, and moral consistency.
Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch once said” “If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12, see a psychiatrist.” That humor carries timeless wisdom: politics is not about total agreement it is about shared progress.
Leadership Rooted in Integrity
Across America, Senator Fatah has emerged as one of the most promising voices for ethical and inclusive governance. In the Minnesota Senate, he has championed policies centered on equity, education, and economic opportunity. His legislative record reflects an unwavering belief that government must serve as a moral instrument for the common good. His bid for mayor of Minneapolis is not driven by ambition alone it is grounded in duty, compassion, and the conviction that civic leadership must be transparent, accountable, and humane. Minneapolis, still wrestling with questions of policing, racial equity, and economic renewal, needs a mayor who listens more than he lectures, one who unites rather than divides.
Senator Fatah’s leadership embodies those very qualities. Representation matters not merely as symbolism, but as substance. Fatah’s candidacy represents the growing maturity of America’s Somali-American community. It affirms that our place in American democracy is not at the periphery, but at the center of public life. His leadership redefines what inclusion means not tokenism, but participation with dignity and competence. For the Somali-American community in Minneapolis, this moment is more than an election it is a test of political maturity. Will we rise above the politics of personality and faction to embrace the politics of progress? Or will we repeat the old cycle of division that weakens our collective influence?
If we allow internal rivalries, rumors, and resentments to dictate our choices, we will hand away our hard-earned political capital. But if we rally behind integrity and competence, we can shape the future not only for ourselves but for the broader city we call home. Let us remember what campaign scholars and history alike teach voters ultimately decide on the economy, ideology, and issues not identity alone. Omar Fatah’s campaign speaks to those universal concerns: affordable housing, public safety, social equity, and economic opportunity. These are not Somali-American issues; they are Minneapolis issues.
A Call for Civic Renewal
In this defining moment, Senator Omar Fatah represents more than a political choice; he represents a civic renewal. His rise symbolizes the triumph of conscience over cynicism, of unity over division, and of public service over personal ambition. To support him is not merely to vote for “one of us,” but to vote for the values we want our community to embody integrity, fairness, and foresight. If elected, Omar Fatah would make history as Minneapolis’s first Somali-American mayor. But the deeper meaning of that achievement goes beyond ethnicity it would reaffirm the American ideal that democracy renews itself through inclusion, merit, and shared purpose.
As a political analyst and campaign veteran, I see in Fatah’s rise a rare convergence of opportunity and responsibility. The moment calls for unity, discipline, and clarity of vision. The choice before us is simple: progress or paralysis; purpose or division. Omar Fatah offers Minneapolis and the Somali-American community a chance to rise to its highest promise. Let us not waste it.
Dayib Sh. Ahmed
Email: Dayib0658@gmail.com
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Dayib is a writer, political analyst and WardheerNews contributor
