MINNEAPOLIS – In a closely watched race, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey successfully fended off a challenge from democratic socialist Omar Fateh and 13 other contenders during the concluding phase of the city’s ranked-choice voting process on Wednesday.

Frey, securing his third term, had initially held a lead over Fateh by roughly 10 percentage points after the first round of ballot counting on Tuesday night. However, he fell short of the necessary 50%-plus-one-vote margin needed for an immediate victory.

Under Minneapolis’ ranked-choice voting system, should no candidate surpass the threshold in the initial tally, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated in subsequent rounds. The votes from those eliminated are then redistributed based on the voter’s second and third-choice preferences. This cycle continues until a candidate achieves the required majority. Frey had previously clinched victory in the second round back in 2021.

Frey, representing the mainstream Democratic faction, and Fateh, a state senator known for his democratic socialist stance, emerged as the frontrunners among the 15 candidates. Other notable figures in the race included Rev. DeWayne Davis and entrepreneur Jazz Hampton, though they trailed further behind.

In a strategic move, Fateh, Davis, and Hampton formed a coalition, encouraging their supporters to rank them above Frey, aiming to complicate the incumbent’s path to victory.

Frey led Minneapolis through the turmoil following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white officer used his knee to pin his neck to the pavement for 9 1/2 minutes. But his administration later negotiated agreements with the state and federal governments to remake a police department that lost hundreds of officers after Floyd’s death.

Fateh was hoping to become the first Muslim and first Somali American mayor of the city, which has the largest Somali population in the U.S. He drew comparisons with Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who won New York City’s mayoral race on Tuesday, because of their backgrounds and ideological similarities. Both come from immigrant families, although Fateh was born in the U.S.

Election officials said Minneapolis set a record for the most votes cast in a municipal election, with more than 147,000 residents voting. They said 55% of registered voters turned out, up slightly from the previous record of 54% in 2021. The City Council is scheduled to certify the final results and make them official on Monday.

In neighboring St. Paul, Democratic state Rep. Kaohly Her defeated incumbent Democratic Mayor Melvin Carter early Wednesday after trailing slightly in the first round of counting there. Her will become the first woman and first Hmong American mayor of the state’s capital city, which has the largest Hmong population in the U.S.

She will be working with an all-female City Council.