Minneapolis DFL appeals interference with convention outcomes

Last month the State DFL’s Constitution, Rules, and Bylaws Committee (CRBC) issued an unprecedented decision to disregard the decisions of DFL delegates, overruling aspects of the July 19 Minneapolis DFL convention. After careful review of the CRBC’s justifications for their decision, the Minneapolis DFL has filed an appeal with the DFL State Executive Committee (SEC), seeking to restore the results of the convention, and to respect the will of the delegates.

In assessing the challenges to the 2025 Minneapolis DFL convention, both the CRBC’s conduct and its decision are deeply flawed.  Before issuing their decision, the committee retained several members with profound conflicts of interest during both the hearing and in deliberations.  These conflicted members irreparably tainted the process — both the hearing itself and the committee’s closed-door deliberations.  The committee disregarded its own procedures and its own consolidation of challenges: their report introduces easily disproven “facts” not raised for review in the hearing, and resurrects inaccurate claims from challenges which they had excluded before the hearing.  Moreover the decision heralds future interference with the resolutions adopted by delegates this summer, and with potential endorsements in the 2026 School Board elections.

In their decision, the CRBC disregarded the authority of Minneapolis DFL delegates to fix problems arising at their convention by themselves.  Faced with the possibility of inexact results in an early ballot, the delegates voted in a valid manner to accelerate the narrowing of the field of candidates in the series of ballots that make up the typical endorsing convention. And with a clear choice between the incumbent mayor and a challenger, the delegates representing Minneapolis caucus-goers overwhelmingly chose Sen. Omar Fateh as the DFL’s candidate for a new mayor. The CRBC has disenfranchised the Minneapolis delegates, mischaracterized their process, and imposed an undemocratic decision of their own on our city.

In overruling the convention delegates’ decisions, the CRBC has corrupted the DFL’s “bottom-up” process. The endorsement process of caucuses and conventions opens public office to ordinary Minnesotans who could not otherwise compete with wealthy special interests in a primary election. Widespread distrust and feelings of betrayal have emerged among many party members, not least in the urban core of Minneapolis. Turnout across Minneapolis is critical to the DFL’s success in statewide races, and CRBC’s alienation of these voters will directly harm the party’s ability to raise donations, energize volunteers, and get out the vote in 2026.

Reversing this misstep by the CRBC, and bringing the party back together, is essential for DFL victories this year and in 2026.  We look forward to SEC’s review and correction of the CRBC’s dramatic error.