MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) –
Following the nationwide presidential election in November 2024, Minneapolis residents will be faced with another pivotal ballot as all 13 city council seats and the office of mayor will be up for grabs.

Here’s a look at who is running for Minneapolis mayor, as of Dec. 4, 2024 (this story will be updated as more people announce they’re running): 

Sen. Omar Fateh

As the first Somali American to serve in the Minnesota Senate after being elected in 2020, Sen. Omar Fateh (DFL-Minneapolis) says he will take what he has learned about organizing and coalition building in the Minnesota Legislature and use it to propel Minneapolis.

“Serving in the Minnesota Senate, I’ve seen firsthand what a progressive legislator can do with the right executive. And as mayor, I’ll work with the progressive city council to achieve real wins for our neighbors and uplift those who are struggling to get by,” Fateh said in a statement announcing his candidacy at Minneapolis’ City Hall on Dec. 2.

Previously, Sen. Fateh pushed for legislation that went into effect on Dec. 1 that set a minimum wage and protections for Uber and Lyft drivers statewide.

However, his time served in the legislature has not gone without raising some eyebrows.

In 2020, an ethics complaint accused Sen. Fateh of seeking state grant money for a Somali media outlet that ran free ads for him. Fateh refuted the allegations of a conflict of interest.

In a separate complaint that year, state lawmakers investigated Fateh’s ties to a federal voter fraud case in which his brother-in-law was convicted of lying to a grand jury.

In 2018, Fateh was unsuccessful in his candidacy for District 62A of the Minnesota House of Representatives.

“We welcome Sen. Fateh to the mayoral race and look forward to presenting voters with a clear choice between two contrasting visions,” a spokesperson for Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement. “Sen. Fateh, a Democratic Socialists of America member who supports removing the police department from the city charter, would jeopardize progress by rubber-stamping the most extreme voices on the city council.”

Council member Emily Koski

On Wednesday, Dec. 4, Ward 11 council member Emily Koski announced she would be running for mayor after first being elected to the council in 2021.

“Four years ago, I ran for elected office to serve my city by building bridges in times of division and disconnection,” Koski said during the announcement. “Today, it’s clear to me: The city I love is at a crossroads, and we face many challenges and opportunities. We’re up against efforts to drive wedges between us and pit us against one another. We need a strong, unifying leader to move us forward.”

Koski is a resident of Minneapolis, and grew up on St. Anthony Parkway in the northeast region of the city.

As part of her speech, Koski decried Frey’s inability to bridge gaps between differing ideologies.

“I’ve witnessed first-hand his [Frey’s] inability to work with your city council, and his absence at so many tables – whether that be with local organizations and advocacy groups, our county, state or federal government,” Koski said.

In her address, Koski said she would work for:

• Adoption and implementation of a consent decree as a powerful and necessary step for advancing police reform;
• A new, innovative approach to police recruiting and retention;
• Increasing shelter and transitional housing supply, and reducing and eliminating barriers;
• Rebuilding our economy, and restoring cultural corridors through supporting entrepreneurship and small business ownership;
• Strengthening our workforce through meaningful policy and ordinances.

According to her campaign page, Koski’s professional experience includes owning and operating a small business, working at Target corporate, and consulting.

Koski cites her first-term accomplishments as creating a City Community Safety Audit Division, investing in the Behavioral Crisis Response Teams and creating/expanding a City Domestic Violence Navigators Program.

Mayor Jacob Frey likely to run

Although he has not officially announced his candidacy to seek reelection, it’s likely that current Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey will seek a third term.

In November 2021, he was elected to a second term, with more than 49.1% of votes election officials tabulated. Kate Knuth made it to the final round of the ranked-choice voting with 38.2% of total votes.

Frey was first elected mayor in 2017 and came under scrutiny following protests over the murder of George Floyd in May 2020.

In the past, he’s clashed with city council members over how best to reform the Minneapolis Police Department in the wake of Floyd’s death.

Under his tenure, Frey ushered in the “strong mayor” government restructuring, which strengthened the power of the mayor’s office by shifting some powers from the city council to the mayor. Previously, the mayor and city council shared executive powers, with the mayor having direct authority over the police department.

MINNEAPOLIS — The former owners of a downtown Minneapolis hotel are being sued for allegedly letting former GOP donor Anton “Tony” Lazzaro sex-traffic underage girls at his condominium inside the hotel.

The lawsuit filed in federal district court on Monday claims that the Hotel Ivy and Residences made no effort to protect the teen girls who were sex trafficked by Lazzaro at his condo on the 19th floor of the Ivy Tower in 2020. 

Lazzaro was sentenced to 21 years in prison for sex trafficking five minors ages 15 and 16 when he was 30 years old. Lazzaro paid teenagers for sex with money and gifts, according to federal prosecutors. He also would supply them with drugs and alcohol to the point many were visibly intoxicated and had to be helped leaving the hotel, according to the recent lawsuit.

Since then, the hotel has changed ownership. In a statement to WCCO, the counsel for the defendants in the lawsuit — Heartland Ivy Partners LLC, Ivy Equity Partners LLC, and Wischermann Partners, Inc.  — called the claims “meritless” and said the defendants will “vigorously defend themselves” in court. The counsel also clarified that the Hotel Ivy and Ivy Residences are “separate and distinct pieces of real estate,” and that Lazzaro’s activities occurred at his condo at the Ivy Residences, which is located in the same building as the Hotel Ivy.

Minnesota law requires all owners, managers and on-site employees of hotels in the state to take sex trafficking training annually. The training — developed by the Minnesota Department of Health in partnership with Hospitality Minnesota — includes a virtual presentation, a companion guide, a manager and owner training toolkit and a poster set. The lawsuit claims that despite this training, the staff at Hotel Ivy made no effort to protect the girls trafficked by Lazzaro. 

The front office manager testified during Lazzaro’s trial that the girls who came to see Lazzaro at his condo appeared to be “significantly younger” than 19 and looked closer to 16 or 17, according to the lawsuit. The victims allegedly were instructed to ask the hotel staff to escort them to a private elevator to access Lazzaro’s condo and would often show up late at night.

“There was a pattern of teenage girls arriving late at night to Hotel Ivy, visiting Lazzaro, and leaving a short time later intoxicated. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that something sinister and criminal was occurring,” attorney Molly Burke said.

The lawsuit also claims one girl and her father informed the staff at Hotel Ivy that Lazzrro sex-trafficked teen girls and asked them to help get the girl’s sister out of his condo, but the staff said they could not do anything.

“It’s about the scope and the breadth of this problem, not just in the Twin Cities and not just at the Ivy Hotel, the scene of the crime, but across the state and across this nation,” attorney Jeff Anderson said. “It’s time for all of us to start to see, to start to watch and then do something about it — something the Ivy Hotel staff failed miserably to do.”

FBI agents raided Lazzaro’s Hotel Ivy condo in December 2020. Investigators seized nearly $400,000 in cash, along with foreign currency and bars believed to be gold. They found a GPS tracker, thumb drives, laptops, tablets and more than a dozen cellphones. Agents also confiscated his Ferrari.

The uncovering of Lazzaro’s actions led to fallout within the Minnesota Republican Party. He’d given the party about $190,000 and was connected to the then-chair, Jennifer Carnahan. There were cries for Carnahan to resign from within the Minnesota GOP. She stepped down a week after the charges against Lazzaro were unsealed.

Lazzaro’s co-defendant, Gisela Castro Medina, was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors and one count of obstruction. 

Court documents say Castro Medina recruited and brought the victims to Lazzaro’s condo. Lazzaro would then compensate Castro Medina with payments for rent, tuition, utilities and travel expenses after he had sex with them.

Note: The video above originally aired on Aug. 9, 2023.