Welcome to the latest installment of Let's Taco 'Bout Politics, a series that has us sitting down with as many 2025 Minneapolis mayoral candidates as possible over Mexican food. During the coming weeks, joined by Wedge LIVE! correspondent Jason Garcia, we’ll be getting tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and tortas with as many mayoral candidates as possible. In the hot seat this week…
Name: Omar Fateh
Current Position: DFL Senator, District 62
Background: Fateh, 34, who’s currently serving his second term, is the first Somali American and first Muslim to serve in the Minnesota Senate. Since 2021, he’s authored or co-authored successful progressive legislation including a bill legalizing fentanyl testing strips and a bill granting free college tuition to those whose families make less than $80,000 a year.
What’d he order?: Asada tacos ($3.99 each) from Pineda Tacos Plus on East Lake Street. “My go-to is the California burrito,” Fateh says, joking that it’s just too big—he had work to do after our conversation and couldn’t fit in a nap.
Em Cassel: Tell us a little bit about why you want to run for mayor of Minneapolis.
Omar Fateh: I’m running, obviously, because I love our city. I’ve seen a lot of good that’s come out of when we work together, folks that care about their neighborhoods, especially during a time of Covid and the uprising. The toughest of times, when people were down and out, people rallied together. Even as senator, seeing people continue to show up—parents showing up, even with their busy schedules, working-class people showing up to different city meetings, to committee hearings, to community gatherings, community meetings at night. People are working hard for the city they care about and for their neighbors.
I said when I was launching my campaign that it’s time for a city that works as hard as you do. And I think that’s important. A lot of times, as senator, I’ve gotten a lot of phone calls, a lot of messages, I’ve had a lot of meetings, about issues that were more city-related. And being in the Senate the last five years—I’m in my fifth year now—I’ve seen what good can come out of having an executive that can work with the legislative body. The last few years, we’ve had a trifecta—we had the House, the Senate, the governor—and we passed a lot of meaningful, transformational pieces of legislation.
The city has, essentially, what’s equal to a trifecta. Almost everyone’s a Democrat on the City Council, the mayor’s a Democrat. But there seems to be more of an adversarial relationship than a partnership. And that needs to change. Obviously I have deep philosophical, political differences from the mayor on things like housing and public safety. But what’s equally important is good relationships. You’ve gotta have good relationships with the folks you’re working with on the council, you’ve gotta have good relationships at the county level, the state level. Because when there’s a breakdown in these relationships we all lose, especially our underrepresented communities.
Jason Garcia: You’re kind of coming at this from a different perspective, being a state officeholder. You’re not coming from the City Council or the private sector, you’re coming as a legislator. So when you think about the sorts of priorities that you’ve carried at the state legislature—things like housing and education, those are things that I know have been important to you, and I’ve seen you show up for them. I’ve seen you show up for our unhoused neighbors and things like that as well. How do you think you would hold those differently as an executive rather than a legislator?
Fateh: I don’t know about holding it differently, I think I’ll continue the same tradition of bringing in community voices. A lot of the legislation that I’m known for getting done came with and in partnership with people. With organizations, with community, with people on the ground. For example, my legislation to save the 2040 Plan was done in concert not just with the city but with housing advocates. The legislation I got successfully passed around tuition-free college for working-class families was done with faculty, staff, and students. I had the first-ever student day at the Capitol my first year as chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee.
A lot of times, community voices are missing. I think there’s a great disconnect right now between the executive and community, not just the executive and the City Council. And that’s just adding another layer to why there is not as much progress being achieved. Too much effort is being placed on how to explain away why things are not getting done rather than getting it done.
Cassel: I’m curious, in addition to trying to repair that relationship and that flow of information, between the mayor’s office and the City Council, between the mayor’s office and the community, are there specific policy issues where you would differ from the current administration?
Fateh: Yeah, two things, around public safety and around our response to encampments, our homeless population. I strongly disagree with the idea that we’re going to bulldoze our way out of this and just move our unhouse neighbors, block by block, telling our neighbors, “One week it’s your problem, the next week it’s your problem.” I think that’s really unfair. And folks do not want that. Our neighbors want our unhoused residents to get housed also. So I would take a housing-first approach. At the Senate, I have had multiple bills for our shelters, whether it’s Simpson Housing or Agate—millions of dollars, because I know that’s a real need. There’s a lot of misinformation from the administration saying, “Oh, all these beds are available,” and that’s not the case.
Number two, around public safety, it’s unfortunate that since the murder of George Floyd there hasn’t been any real, meaningful reform. Folks are really unhappy with that. I think we’ve reached a point where whether you’re wanting to throw more money at police, or you believe in some kind of police reform, or if you believe in abolishing the police, no matter where you fall on the spectrum, you’re unhappy. We have things like the Safe & Thriving Communities Plan that can be implemented right now—that’s not being implemented.
We have a City Council that’s eager and willing to put in place things where, when you have a 911 call, you’ll get the appropriate response at the right time. Because right now we’re hearing that calls are getting dropped or police aren’t responding to things like cars that are getting broken into, for example. We know that there are times when there’s a lot of talk around staffing shortages and not having a lot of police. The city did release a report saying that 47% of calls can be diverted to an alternative response. You don’t need an officer every single time. To me, that’s powerful, because that speaks to the needs of the community but also, if the police are being stretched out thin, it should be helpful for them to be more strategic in where to get placed.
Garcia: Another question about your background, I guess: You have run and been endorsed by DSA, which has sometimes been kind of the boogeyman for… we’ll say “less progressive” members of the DFL. How do you think that experience of interacting with DSA as well as the DFL has helped inform your politics, especially as that would relate to being mayor?
Fateh: Being a DSA and DFL elected official, especially the YDSA, the younger DSA organizers, it’s talking about what’s going on in the legislature. It’s been a lot of education, because when things don’t get across the finish line, a lot of times people—not just DSA—they don’t understand or don’t know about the budget process, that a committee has a budget target, that you have to work with this amount of money, all that stuff. A lot of it is meeting with them, educating them, and continuing to build that power around a working-class message. At the same time, at the Capitol, you have a very diverse Senate, not just how people look but how people think. You have folks—urban, rural, suburban, right? And with that, of course, there’s going to be different ideas on different policies.
The Democratic Party a lot of times, I think our weakness is, when we talk about negotiation and compromise, the DFL is always getting the short end of the stick, or at least that’s what the optics are. When I engage on tuition-free college, or Uber and Lyft, or around addiction—the fentanyl testing strips—all those pieces of legislation that I got across the finish line, not only did I get it with my more moderate members, but I had Republican co-sponsors on all those things.
Cassel: In fact, testing strips, Republicans still had control of the Senate, right?
Fateh: Yeah, we were in the minority at that time, and that was my first year in the Senate. It took a lot of time just knocking on doors, talking to folks. But I was proud—that’s one thing people don’t know a lot about. But it was life-saving. I think the Star Tribune reported that one year after it got passed, they handed out 100,000 testing strips, which is amazing. Saving thousands of lives, you know? That’s something I’m proud to have been a part of, I got to work with Sen. Julie Rosen... But how do you communicate the needs of legislation not just for a progressive, leftist perception? A lot of times, common ground can be found through communication. And when I say common ground, I don’t mean compromising your values, I mean having them see your point of view.
Sometimes there’s overlap where you don’t expect. For example, I have legislation drafted with Sen. Eric Lucero, who’s a Republican, around banning facial-recognition technology, because we’re both concerned about mass-surveillance issues, especially after the Mall of America announced their surveillance system. That’s something where immediately after I called him up, we met, we released a statement together, to show we’re in this—we’re people. I always tackle things from a people perspective.
Cassel: This relates to something I wanted to ask you about, which is that when you announced your candidacy, Mayor Frey’s campaign released a statement that said something to the effect of: Fateh is a Democratic Socialist, he supports removing the police from the City Charter, and he would jeopardize progress and “rubber-stamp the most extreme voices on the City Council.” I wanted to give you a chance to respond to that.
Fateh: I cried a little bit. [Laughs.] Just a little bit. One single tear. No, obviously not. It’s interesting, because that’s not the first time he’s made that kind of statement. But time and time again, when those things are being said, he’s not saying what he believes is extreme. What exactly is extreme? Is tuition-free college extreme? Is believing that everyone should be housed extreme? Is increasing worker protections and wages for our Uber and Lyft drivers extreme? Is making sure that folks struggling with addiction, that our number-one priority is keeping them alive, is that extreme? What is it that you think is extreme? It’s easy to level accusations like that without backing it up. I guess my question back would be: What exactly is it about it that is extreme?
Garcia: This is a little more… it’s connected to the other things, but it’s a little more specific. Running for SD 62 is a very different creature than running for mayor of Minneapolis. There’s a vastly different number of constituents, there are different—we always play the “we’re all Democrats here” card, but you really get into a lot of different wings of who is considered the DFL and things like that when you talk about city politics vs. when you get to the general election for a state seat from the metro area. As you’re looking at going out and talking to people from different parts of the city that you haven’t represented before, what are the issues you’re finding people are interested in and what are you telling them about those issues?
Fateh: For sure. Like I said earlier, I think folks are really, really worried about our unhoused population. It’s not what the administration sees—our neighbors are not worried about it being, like, a bad image. They’re genuinely concerned. It’s freezing outside right now. When I speak to other folks, in maybe the more “conservative”—air quotes, air quotes—part of the city, I’m hearing from folks who are worried about their property taxes being increased. And it’s important to note that it’s the mayor that tried to increase it to 8+%, and the City Council is the one that voted for reducing that, right? It’s a lot of, I don’t want to say fact-checking, but saying, “No, actually, the mayor didn’t do this. This is what he did.” Because far too many times, misinformation has spread, and I feel like from the establishment it’s similar to the Republican playbook. There was a saying, and I can’t remember who said it, but there was a saying like, “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.” It seems like that’s what’s happening.
And it seems like a lot of folks are just disconnected from the process. They don’t know what their caucus date is, they don’t know who’s running. They’ll hear about a lot of the major stuff that happens on the news, but not so much the why as to why something failed, or why something succeeded. It’s a lot of educating and learning from them about issues.
Cassel: Switching gears entirely, we do like to talk about the food a little bit while we’re doing these. I know this is far from your first time at Pineda, so tell me a little bit about the kinds of restaurants you like to go to when you go out.
Fateh: This is one of the locations I frequent. My go-to is the California burrito, I couldn’t do it tonight because I have some extra work to do. But Pineda is a spot that always hits. I like Olive Kitchen on Nicollet & 18th, which is also a Somali restaurant. I feel like they have the best barbecue chicken in the area. Ask them for the barbecue chicken legs next time. I frequent a lot of coffee shops, one of the ones I really like a lot is Code Blu on Franklin & 26th. Capitol Cafe, of course—last month I had two events there, a meet and greet and also a Super Bowl watch party.
Garcia: My best friend from childhood went to college at Augsburg, and we grew up in a town of like 1,600 people in northern Wisconsin. And one of the things he was really excited about when he moved here was having access to coffee shops and things like that. One of his big things that he was so excited to tell me about when we went home for the holidays was how big coffee is in Somali culture, and how he loved to go hang out at coffee shops on the West Bank and just be around Somali people, and kind of hear how everybody comes together and talks and things like that. I think that’s one of the things a lot of cultures have in common: You come together over food and drink. Can you talk a little bit about how you have taken some of that background, how that helps you connect with community?
Fateh: Absolutely. I think those coffee meetings, or Shaah, as we call Somali tea, that’s where people come to converse, that’s where people come after work, or on weekends. They talk about life; they talk about politics. It really unites people, because you see people that are on different sides of things—on politics, people supporting different candidates, even friends and family of candidates that are running against each other—sitting together. People get united in those places. A lot of times I go there just to check in on people and say, “Hey, what are you hearing?” Or I go in there and say, “We got this done, I got the tuition-free bill—you’ve gotta sign your kids up.” Things like that. It helps do a lot of the outreach about things we’ve passed.
One of my concerns, always, and it’s something I have to remind myself, is that when legislators get bills passed, we think, “OK, the job is done.” But a lot of times people don’t know about it, especially a few years down the line. It’s really hard to reach five million statewide people. So it’s educating, as a legislator, telling people about what we’re getting done and also hearing from them… it’s an area where I both go to educate and get educated.
Garcia: To follow up on that, when you’re getting that feedback—I know enough about how the legislature works, it’s not always going to be glowing thank yous and positive feedback. And one thing I have noticed personally in my interactions with our current mayor is that he’s not very good about receiving negative feedback. How would you be different in that regard?
Fateh: There are some bills that I’ve carried the last few years in which either I didn’t have the full information about something or it wasn’t articulated in a certain way, that I carried myself. And the community came full force: “What are you doing? What’s going on?” They’re not doing it in an attack way, they’re doing it out of love, saying, “This is problematic because XYZ.” And it’s my job to understand them, it’s not personal. When people are being harmed, it’s never personal. And to adjust and to listen and to say, “What’s going on? What’s this really about?” Even if it is a personal attack, or if people are really upset, usually it’s coming from a place of hurt, so you have to understand that. And as legislators, you have to accept accountability in all forms. That’s what I believe. No matter what. Whether it’s tough love, whether it’s extreme anger—they hate your guts—you have to accept it, you have to listen, and you have to learn.
Garcia: I think that’s really important, when you’re asking to be a leader, to be able to accept feedback when it’s positive and when it’s negative.
Fateh: And by the way, not just from community members. If I’m elected mayor, my colleagues on the City Council, if they’re having issues with something, we’ll talk it out. I believe there should be a partnership between the city and the mayor, there should be a partnership between the community and the mayor.
Garcia: I guess we kind of touched on some of the food stuff, but one of the questions that we ask people is, what’s something that’s your go-to to make at home?
Fateh: So I’m a horrible cook. I’ve tried to cook a couple of times with my wife, and I ruined the dishes, like, completely. But I’m OK at baking! Brownies, I’m OK. I used to do brownies when I was in high school, especially. I’m good at baking, bad at cooking.
Cassel: I also find baking easier—you can follow a formula…
Fateh: It’s fewer steps.
Garcia: That’s where it always trips me up, because when I was very young, someone explained it to me as, “Cooking is art, baking is chemistry.” And I don’t mind baking, but I’m very a much a, “Eh, that looks like enough garlic.” The recipe calls for four cloves and I threw in eight, but you have to measure with your heart, so those things are easier for me, where I can be like, “This isn’t turning out exactly how I wanted now I have to adjust.”
Fateh: Well, to answer your question, I’m horrible. But see, I know my deficiencies.
Garcia: You have to have areas to improve. You’re a very young man, so you’ll have lots of time to improve on that.
Fateh: I hope so, I hope so.
Cassel: Well we’re many months out from the election at this point, what do you think the campaign will hold for you? What can people expect over the coming months?
Fateh: We’re having a lot of phone calls, a lot of phone banking. We’re talking to a lot of neighbors. I’m hosting meetings every week in every ward. Just going out to the community in general and talking to people as much as I can. People can expect to see me everywhere. Our goal is to turn out as many people at caucus as possible. I remember in 2020, we had an ambitious goal when I was first starting as state senator, and we got 72% at the convention. There’s no secret formula, it’s just conversations, talking to people. And having a lot of it. I think the same formula will apply right now.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Previously in Let’s Taco ‘Bout Politics, we sat down with Minneapolis City Council Member Emily Koski and Reverend Dr. DeWayne Davis. Check back for conversations with the rest of this year’s mayoral candidates.
