My candidate lost, but I have no regrets
In the most recent Minneapolis election for mayor, I voted for a candidate who had only a long shot chance of winning. And in fact, he did lose. But today, I have no regrets that I supported Jazz Hampton. I’d like to tell you why.
I spent five years as the director of training for Wellstone Action, the organizing center that was created to carry on the late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone’s way of doing politics. In that role I interacted with hundreds of aspiring candidates for public office across this nation and in Minnesota. Our team always led with the same message: Be authentic, act with integrity, listen to people’s genuine concerns, have a vision, but be pragmatic and flexible. And most of all, understand that you run for office not for yourself, but to make the lives of people in your community better. It’s not about you. It’s about those you serve. Be humble.
Those are the same values and commitments I found in Jazz Hampton. He was late getting into the race and a seriously under-resourced candidate, and yet in gathering after gathering, he inspired people to believe that Minneapolis could be a city to be proud of again. He gave people hope and a sense of possibility. He told us what he was for, not who he was against. And the fact that he sends his children to Minneapolis Public Schools was icing on the cake and showed a strong commitment to the city.
I’m not trying to rewrite the outcome of the election, but I am going to make a public appeal to Mayor Jacob Frey as he begins a third term. Things must be different this time around. As mayor, you have an obligation to represent all of the city, not simply those who have money, power and influence. You should start showing up in all neighborhoods, even those where you are not especially popular. My neighborhood needs immediate action to get the intersection at 38th and Chicago cleaned up and moving again. Honor George Floyd’s memory, erect a permanent memorial to him and open a transit corridor so people can once again get to work efficiently.
Related: Frey’s win set against the backdrop of a more progressive City Council – again
Develop relationships with City Council members, not only those who agree with you, but all of them. Find a way to work together, quit pointing fingers and build the coalition on the council needed to move this city forward. We deserve a functional city government. We cannot accomplish anything with polarization and blame. Enough.
Do not talk about how well we are dealing with homelessness in Minneapolis when every day as we walk and drive our city streets, we see the lack of effective strategies. Hire more outreach workers, invite creative and out-of-the-box solutions, actually talk to the unhoused themselves, asking them what they need. Addiction, guns, violence and homelessness are making our city unlivable for everyone, but especially those on the streets who are coping with multiple issues.
Finally, I ask you, Mayor Frey, to articulate a vision for our city that inspires, calls us to action and engagement and demonstrates that every person who resides here matters. We can accomplish quite a lot if we come together and seek common ground. Turn the page on the past several years. Become the mayor we all deserve.
Pam Costain is a a lifelong community organizer and former Minneapolis School Board member.
During the next four years, embrace compromise
In a Minnesota Star Tribune commentary in August, I wrote in anticipation of the city election, “whoever occupies the mayor’s office and 13 council seats, Minneapolis cannot afford another four years like the last four, marked by increasing stalemates and bitterness that too often impeded needed progress.”
Today we know who will occupy those seats at City Hall. After months of hard campaigning, their four-year term together starts soon. Politicking is behind and governing awaits.
The same can be said to those who aggressively advocated for their preferred candidates. I was one. An old saying goes, “politics ain’t beanbag,” and this campaign lived up to that admonition. But now the individuals who hold election certificates next January deserve the space to determine their best path forward working to serve the people they represent and the city overall, and aiming to avoid the stalemates and bitterness I wrote about.
Relations at City Hall are calcified between the two sides that have come to define Minneapolis politics; self-described pragmatic democrats on one side, and those aligned with Democratic Socialists of America on the other. Neither side delivered a knockout blow to the other in this election. Nevertheless, both could declare victory and seek to marginalize the other. In other words, more of the same.
There is a better path to follow.
It’s a truism in our polarized politics that compromise is a discredited behavior. We’ve experienced that in Minneapolis. The results are not satisfactory. So instead, during the next four years compromise should be the preferred way to operate.
To find compromise, no one needs to capitulate or abandon their values. But everyone must resist defining an acceptable outcome as, I and my side clearly win, and you and your side clearly lose.
On the key issues facing Minneapolis there is ample room to find middle-ground solutions that may not be embraced by purists but are acceptable to the majority. Solutions that represent concrete progress, if not ultimate resolution, on thorny problems. Newsflash for our elected leaders: Take it from someone who has worked on key urban challenges like safety, poverty, housing affordability and economic growth for decades — there is no ultimate resolution. Only opportunity to make meaningful progress one day, and the prospect of making more the next.
Even in the afterglow of a hard-fought election when pledges of cooperation are easy to make, savvy bettors would likely wager that fractures will again soon emerge in Minneapolis City Hall. But with the mayor serving a self-determined final term, four new council members with fresh perspectives and diverse experiences, and returning incumbents who experienced the frustrations of past dysfunction, I hope that is a bad bet. Voters who turned out in record numbers expect and deserve better for the city we love.
Steve Cramer is a former Minneapolis City Council member, executive director of the Minneapolis Community Development Agency, executive director of Project for Pride in Living, and president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council.
Young voters and hope for the future
As America’s health care system braces for brutal cuts and closures, one bright light still quietly shines: the surge of the nation’s youth voters.
Health care policy decisions shape whether communities can access care, afford prescriptions, and even protect their most basic rights. At a time defined by health care defunding under H.R. 1, a growing clinician shortage crisis, and rising public distrust in science and medicine, we want to shine a light on a different story unfolding in places like Minnesota, where young voters are changing election outcomes that define public health.
Believe it or not, voting is a vital sign of civic health, a measure of how well communities are equipped to address public problems. Just as blood pressure signals physical health, voter participation signals the strength of our democracy. And right now, youth may just be the steady force needed to keep the system alive. Youth voter registration is on the rise, and when young people register to vote, they tend to show up at the polls and impact public health decisions such as reproductive freedom, school mental health funding and healthcare access. If we want better health outcomes, we need better access to civic participation.
Still, voter registration itself remains a major roadblock. Roughly half of eligible youth voted in 2020, despite far higher turnout once they’re registered. In other words, the challenge of the youth vote isn’t motivating them to get to the polls, but in getting them to register in the first place.
And Minnesota may just have the blueprint to make that happen. Young voters across the state demonstrated what’s possible when civic participation is built into the system and not left up to chance. According to the 2025 Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) Report, Minnesota led the nation with 62% youth turnout in 2024, including 60% among first-time voters ages 18–19, showcasing how targeted reforms can produce real results quickly. And they weren’t the only ones to see an increase in youth voter turnout. Maine, Michigan and Colorado all saw increases since 2020.
Related: Local issues carried the day for Greater Minnesota voters, but national politics loom
So what do these high-performing states have in common? They endorse policies like automatic voter registration, same-day registration, no-excuse absentee voting and pre-registration for 16-year-olds. These measures are to democracy what vaccines are to public health: a simple, evidence-based intervention that strengthens the system from within.
Now, it’s up to us — the clinicians, the educators, the community organizers — to bridge the glaring gap between awareness and action. Across the country, grassroots groups are already leading the way. Organizations like New Voters and the Alliance for Youth Action mobilize young people before they even reach voting age, while Civic Health Alliance and Vot-ER bring civic engagement into health care spaces. Together, these efforts recognize that civic participation is itself a form of care, strengthening the health of our communities, institutions, and our collective future.
In a dark political era, America’s young people offer a glimmer of hope. They are proof that the next generation of voters has the power to mobilize and transform conviction into action. Minnesota gave us the playbook, but now it’s time to scale it. Through education, advocacy, and especially access, the path forward is clear: when we invest in civic engagement, we invest in the health of democracy itself.
Jessica Dennehy is director of policy and partnerships, Civic Health Alliance, and Jahnavi Rao is president and founder, New Voters.
The post Post-election roundup: Three views on the road ahead for Frey, City Hall and young voters appeared first on MinnPost.
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