Allegations of Election Fraud Cause Minnesota Democrats to Pull Mayoral Endorsement of Somali Socialist

AP Photo/Adam Bettcher

The Minnesota Democrat Party has taken the unprecedented step of revoking the endorsement its Minneapolis chapter gave to state senator Omar Fateh during its chaotic, dumpster-fire convention in July. During that convention, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, as it is called in Minnesota, rejected nominating incumbent mayor Jacob Frey in favor of Fateh. Fateh, the son of Somali immigrants and a prominent member of the Somali subculture that seems to be dominating liberal politics in Minnesota, which has produced such superstars as Ilhan Omar, was nominated in a convention that was characterized by apparent fraud and all manner of shenanigans.

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What happened: After delegates took the first mayoral endorsement vote on their smartphones at around 5pm, party officials took nearly two hours to tabulate and report results.

  • As the count dragged on, officials with Frey and Jazz Hampton's campaigns questioned whether the online system had recorded all delegates' choices, citing a smaller-than-expected number of votes.
  • Lee said the campaigns' math was wrong, and also noted campaigns each sent representatives to oversee a party representative as they combed through a spreadsheet of results line-by-line.

With Frey supporters leaving, and the convention facing a firm 10pm adjournment deadline, the remaining delegates held an endorsement vote by, essentially, a show of hands.

  • When the vast majority of remaining delegates raised their badges for Fateh at around 9:30pm, the convention chair declared the state senator the winner.
  • Remaining delegates also filed paper ballots, but a complete count wouldn't be available until after adjournment.

In a tersely worded statement, the DFL's Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee said, “After a thoughtful and transparent review of the challenges, the Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee found substantial failures in the Minneapolis Convention’s voting process on July 19th, including an acknowledgement that a mayoral candidate was errantly eliminated from contention. As a result, the Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee has vacated the mayoral endorsement."

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The DFL released a preliminary report giving a detailed sequence of events and spelling out what was wrong.

CONCLUSION

The CBRC determines that the Challengers have proven by clear and convincing evidence that the endorsement of Omar Fateh for mayor of Minneapolis was facilitated by use of a flawed electronic voting system which caused a substantial undercount on the first ballot of the mayoral endorsement and which caused another candidate to be dropped from consideration after such first ballot.

The CBRC determines that the Challengers have proven by clear and convincing evidence that the first ballot of the mayoral endorsement must be disregarded in its entirety by reason of the fact that it did not count all eligible and voting delegates.

The CBRC determines that the Challengers have proven by clear and convincing evidence that the second ballot of the mayoral endorsement must be disregarded in its entirety by reason of the fact that it did not include the name of an eligible candidate.

REMEDIES

The endorsement of Omar Fateh for mayor of Minneapolis is revoked by the CBRC.

Fateh, who looks like he'd be more at home on the deck of a hijacked ship in the Red Sea than in the Twin Cities,

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is not happy.

28 party insiders met privately and voted to overturn our endorsement.  

Let me be clear, we’re still in this fight. And we’re going to win. 

Ilhan Omar is also incensed.

It is inexcusable to overturn the DFL endorsement from Omar Fateh.

A small group, a majority living outside Minneapolis, met privately to overturn the will of Minneapolis delegates who volunteered, organized, and participated in a months-long DFL process.

To add to his other charms, Fateh is a racist.

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He has been involved in ethical malpractice.

And his brother-in-law has also been involved in scams.

Many have noted that the Democrat Party has taken a very sharp turn to the left down the road it was already traveling. This year would've marked the endorsement of two hard-left socialists for mayor in two major American cities (Smitten With Socialism – RedState)—not that the incumbent is a whole lot better; see Minneapolis's Mayor Effectively Said the Chauvin Trial's Verdict Doesn't Matter and Ensured Riots Destroy the City – RedState. The decision, rightly or wrongly, by the DFL leadership to intervene in a local organization's convention shows just how serious the problem is. The only question is whether the intervention works or it is too little and too late.

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