More than four dozen candidates filed digital paperwork with Minneapolis Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) to seek the endorsement of the party’s members for various offices during the upcoming caucus and convention process.
That includes Elliott Payne and, after clearing up a campaign mis-communication, incumbent Kevin Reich for City Council First Ward. In the Third Ward, incumbent Steve Fletcher and challengers Michael Rainville and Mervin J. Moorhead are seeking the endorsement.
With Ranked Choice Voting, party endorsement is only part of the election milieu. In fact, candidates don’t file officially until well after the city convention is held in early summer.
The DFL candidates who registered by a set deadline were asked if they would drop out of the race if not endorsed. Reich said yes, Payne said no. Rainville and Fletcher said yes, Moorhead said no.
Four candidates are seeking endorsement for Minneapolis mayor: Sheila Nezhad, Kate Knuth, Phil Sturm, and Jacob Frey, listed in order of time their registrations were filed. Knuth and Sturm pledged to abide by the DFL endorsement and not continue campaigning if another candidate was endorsed by the upcoming convention. Nezhad and Frey declined to make that same pledge.
Minneapolis DFL members will be able to register for the 2021 caucus beginning April 1 and ending on April 30.
This year there are three parallel ways to register. For attendees with Internet access, they can register online starting April 1 at caucus.dfl.org and take about 10 minutes to fill out a form that includes translations for Spanish, Hmong, and Somali. Attendees without Internet access can call and leave a voicemail at 612-552-4215. Minneapolis DFL will record the registration or call back if an attendee wants to be called back at a later time. The third option available is to text “2021” to 612-712-7461. Attendees can chat with Minneapolis DFL on their own schedule in their preferred language.
To re-create the live experience of meeting candidates, Minneapolis DFL will host 13 caucus events on the night of Tuesday, April 27, 2021. These events are entirely optional for attendees and are not required to complete a registration. The live events will be organized by Minneapolis ward, and are entirely virtual this year. All 13 live events will be live-streamed with staggered schedules so that city-wide candidates can attend all of them.
“The 2021 caucus will be the most accessible in Minneapolis history,” said Minneapolis DFL Chair Devin Hogan. “This year, working parents and folks with disabilities will have full and equitable access to make their voices heard.”
Minneapolis DFL also announced the roll out of new translations. The entire website and registration process will be available in English, Spanish, Hmong, and Somali. Caucus information is available in all four languages at the following links:
English: https://minneapolisdfl.org/english/caucus
Spanish: https://minneapolisdfl.org/espanol/caucus
Hmong: https://minneapolisdfl.org/hmoob/caucus
Somali: https://minneapolisdfl.org/soomaaliga/caucus
Edited, source: Mpls.DFL