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Jacob Frey
Mayor of Minneapolis since 2018 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Jacob Lawrence Frey (/fraɪ/ ⓘ FRY;[1] born July 23, 1981) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota since 2018. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, he served on the Minneapolis City Council from 2014 to 2018, was elected mayor of Minneapolis in 2018, and was reelected as mayor in 2021.[1][2][3][4]
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Born and raised in Virginia, Frey attended the College of William & Mary on a track and field scholarship. He later attended law school at Villanova University.
During and after law school, Frey was a noted distance runner, ranking in prominent races and receiving an athletic endorsement. After law school, he moved to Minneapolis, where he worked as an employment discrimination and civil rights lawyer before entering politics.
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Early life and career
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Frey was born in Arlington County, Virginia.[5] He grew up in nearby Oakton, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. His parents were professional modern ballet dancers; his mother is of Russian-Jewish ancestry, and his father converted to Judaism.[6][7]
Frey attended William & Mary after graduating from high school, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2004.[8][9] While attending, he was a distance runner on the track and field team and all-Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) cross-country runner. He competed at the 2002 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships.[10][11] Frey won the 2002 CAA 5,000-meter title in track.[11]
After graduating from college, Frey received a contract from a shoe company to run professionally. He ran in several marathons across the country and competed for Team USA in the 2007 Pan American Games marathon, finishing in fourth place.[12][13]
Frey moved to Minneapolis in 2009 after graduating cum laude from the Villanova University School of Law and joined the law firm Faegre & Benson to practice employment discrimination and civil rights law before moving on to the law firm Halunen & Associates.[14][15][16][17] Frey gave his graduating class's commencement speech.[8]
In late 2011, Frey ran in a special election for an open state senate seat and came in fifth in the party primary, ahead only of someone who had dropped out of the race.[18]
In 2012, Frey founded and organized the first Big Gay Race, a 5K charity race to raise money for Minnesotans United for All Families, a political group organizing for marriage equality.[19]
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Mayor of Minneapolis
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Frey announced his candidacy for mayor of Minneapolis in January 2017,[20] campaigning on a platform of increasing support for affordable housing and improving police-community relations. He won the 2017 election, making him Minneapolis's second Jewish mayor and its second-youngest after Al Hofstede, who was 34 when he was elected in 1973.[21][22][23]
Frey was reelected with 56.2% of the vote in 2021, defeating challenger Kate Knuth in the final round of ranked-choice voting.[24] Frey is the first mayor to serve under the so called "Strong Mayor" system, a power reorganization that changed the city council from a governing body to a legislative body and gave the mayor direct control over 11 city departments, including the police department, that was approved by ballot measure in 2021.[25] Frey championed the strong mayor system under the auspices of reining in the MPD and taking on the police federation.[26]
In 2024, Frey set a record for vetoes issued in a year—eight, with four sustained.[27] Vetoed legislation included a ceasefire resolution, a minimum wage for rideshare drivers, a statement in support of amnesty for student protesters, and a charter for a labor relations board to advise the city council on labor issues.[27]
One of Frey's senior policy aides, Abdi Salah, pleaded guilty to wire fraud as a conspirator in the Feeding Our Future case; Frey said he was unaware of Salah's activities, which included giving Frey talking points written by the organization's leader, Aimee Bock. Salah was fired from Frey's office.[28][29]
In January 2025, Frey announced his intention to run for a third term, saying it would be his last mayoral campaign.[30] On July 19, the Minneapolis DFL endorsed state senator Omar Fateh over Frey.[31]
Infrastructure
In 2022, Frey vetoed a plan to redevelop Hennepin Avenue into a mixed-use street that incorporated a permanent bus lane, citing local businesses' concerns over parking.[32] The plan proceeded with a bus lane open during rush hour and an above-grade bike lane.[33]
In 2025, Frey vetoed a City Council measure to turn George Floyd Square into a pedestrian mall supported by community groups.[34] In October 2024, the Frey administration proposed an overhaul of the area that would allow traffic to fully return to the street.[34]
Frey has championed the idea of turning Nicollet Mall into a "pedestrian utopia" by rerouting bus traffic (car traffic is already prohibited) to neighboring streets and encouraging social programming.[35] He has also supported open-container "social districts" in the city and attempts to turn underutilized downtown office buildings into housing.[35]
Housing and homelessness
The first budget Frey authored as mayor focused heavily on affordable housing. Its $40 million allocation to affordable housing was triple what the city previously spent on affordable housing.[36]
As mayor, Frey is pushing for a plan that would allow the building of four-plexes in every part of the city. Two-thirds of Minneapolis is zoned exclusively for single-family homes.[37]
In 2018, the Minneapolis City Council voted for Minneapolis 2040, a comprehensive rezoning reform plan.[38][39] According to Slate, the plan would "permit three-family homes in the city's residential neighborhoods, abolish parking minimums for all new construction, and allow high-density buildings along transit corridors."[40] Slate wrote that by implementing the plan, "Minneapolis will become the first major U.S. city to end single-family home zoning, a policy that has done as much as any to entrench segregation, high housing costs, and sprawl as the American urban paradigm over the past century."[40]
In April 2025, Frey said that only 27 people in the city were experiencing unsheltered homelessness.[41] He has championed clearing large encampments and attributes a reduction in homelessness to this.[42] Frey received particular criticism for his role in closing Camp Nenookaasi, a large encampment that was home primarily to native people.[43]
Frey does not support rent control, particularly on new construction.[44] He vetoed a 2021 ballot question that would have allowed rent control ballot measures to be considered in future elections.[44] In 2023, he threatened to veto a three percent limit on rent increases.[45]
Police reform
Frey has consistently championed significant annual increases in the MPD budget.[46][47] Community groups have protested these increases and the lack of significant investment in community-led safety alternatives.[48][49][50]
Frey introduced reforms to the Minneapolis Police Department's body camera policy in April 2018, tying non-compliance to stricter disciplinary consequences.[51] In 2019, Frey announced during his State of the City address the banning of "warrior" training for police officers, which had been taken by the officer who killed Philando Castile.[52]
On May 27, 2020, after the start of protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd, Frey backed the firing of the four police officers involved in the death. The next day, he called for criminal charges against Derek Chauvin, the arresting officer who pressed his knee on Floyd's neck, saying, "If you had done it or I had done it, we would be behind bars right now."[53]
On June 5, 2020, Frey directed changes to the MPD that the City Council approved to go into effect immediately.[54] These included banning chokeholds and neck restraints, requiring police officers to report and intervene against the use of excessive force by other officers, and requiring authorization from the police chief or deputy police chiefs before using crowd-control weapons such as chemical agents and rubber bullets.[55][56]
In November 2020, Frey announced that the MPD had been banned from using no-knock warrants.[57] In the wake of the killing of Amir Locke, Frey admitted that no such ban had actually been implemented.[57] He was further criticized for walking out of a press conference on the subject.[58]
On June 6, 2020, thousands of protesters pushing for the abolition of the MPD marched to Frey's apartment and demanded he come out to address the crowd.[59] Protestors asked Frey, who was wearing a face mask with the words "I can't breathe" on it, whether he would commit to defunding the MPD.[59] He answered, "I do not support the full abolition of police."[60] Attendees chanted "go home" and "shame" at Frey as he left following his answer.[61][62]
On April 20, 2021, after Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder, Frey released a statement[63] on Twitter in which he implied that Floyd had sacrificed his life for the betterment of the city of Minneapolis. The statement was heavily criticized and many called on Frey to fire his communications staff.[64]
In August 2022, it was announced that the MPD, while under Frey's control, had "decided to use drones".[26] The purchase of drones and drone use policy continued despite criticism from the vast majority of attendees of the city council committee meeting at which it was discussed.[26]
Frey has said that he lobbied Governor Tim Walz to deploy the National Guard to quell the uprising when Walz was hesitant to do so.[65] It has been documented that the force the National Guard used against protesters during the uprising caused substantial levels of injury, and the University of Minnesota found that it violated United Nations guidelines.[66][67] There were multiple reports that the MPD consistently used excessive force against protesters during the uprising.[68]
In July 2023, Frey signed an executive order instructing the MPD to make enforcement of laws concerning entheogenic plants, such as psychoactive mushrooms, the "lowest law enforcement priority".[69] Frey has also consistently been supportive of the cannabis industry and legalization.[70]
In 2025, Frey vetoed a City Council measure to turn George Floyd Square into a pedestrian mall supported by community groups.[34] In October 2024, the Frey administration proposed an overhaul of the area that would allow traffic to fully return to the street.[34]
In May 2025, after the US Justice Department withdrew the consent decree mandating reform to the MPD, Frey said the city would continue to implement the reforms laid out in the decree.[71]
Sanctuary city status
In January 2025, after the University of Minnesota said it would comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Frey told the media that the City of Minneapolis would not aid in identifying undocumented immigrants and that the MPD would not aid ICE.[72]
In March 2025, Frey said that Minneapolis would remain a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants.[73]
Roof Depot
In 2016, the City of Minneapolis purchased the Roof Depot property in the Phillips neighborhood, the former site of a pesticide producer, for $6.8 million with plans to expand its Public Works campus. The project was intended to replace an aging waterworks facility.
The site was known to be extensively contaminated with arsenic, which lead to community concern about health risks from the demolition that would be needed to repurpose the site.[74] Frey asserted that the demolition could proceed safely with strict precautions, but local residents—many from low-income BIPOC backgrounds—maintained strong opposition. Residents of Little Earth, a Native American neighborhood near the site, were prominent critics of the project.[74]
Opposition to the demolition was led by the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI), which advocated transforming the property into an urban farm, complete with sustainable agriculture and community spaces.[74]
In 2022, after a contentious City Council vote to suspend the project, Frey issued a veto that kept the demolition plans on track.[74]
In February 2023, local activists staged a brief occupation of the Roof Depot site in an attempt to halt the demolition. Frey’s administration directed the MPD to clear the occupation, resulting in the arrests of six protesters, many of whom are involved in the American Indian Movement.[74]
Shortly after the demonstration, the Minnesota Court of Appeals temporarily blocked demolition, offering activists a brief window to pursue an appeal. But despite these setbacks, Frey has shown little inclination to halt the project, emphasizing the city’s commitment to the public works campus.[74]
Frey has made offers to split the property for both public works and community use, but EPNI and other activist groups argue that such a compromise would still prioritize industrial development over area residents' health.[74]
Labor relations
Frey has vetoed two pieces of legislation intended to ensure that rideshare services like Uber and Lyft provide compensation equal to at least the city minimum wage.[75]
During his 2023 State of the City address, Frey pleaded with workers to return to their downtown offices at least three days a week.[76]
In early 2024, Frey told attendees of the Minneapolis Downtown Council annual meeting that people who work from home for more than three months become "losers", possibly signaling support of return-to-office efforts to commercial real estate interests.[76] Frey has said that this was a misconstrued joke.[76]
In September 2024, Frey vetoed the establishment of a labor standards board that would have offered policy recommendations to the City Council.[77] After the City Council disregarded their initial plea, 40 business owners of color organized a petition, collecting signatures from over 400 local and small businesses, to persuade the mayor to veto the board.[78] Frey had supported the idea two years earlier but vetoed it when City Council amendments caused business leaders to pull out, unwilling to serve on a board they considered one-sided.[79][80]
Response to pro-Palestinian activism
In early 2024, Frey vetoed a ceasefire resolution the City Council developed in response to the Gaza war following the October 7 attacks, calling the passed version "one-sided" because it "all but erases [the history] of Israeli Jews".[81] Frey put together his own version of the ceasefire resolution that endorsed a two-state solution.[81]
In December 2024, Frey vetoed a statement of support for amnesty for students who were being punished by the University of Minnesota after they occupied a campus building in hopes of getting the university to divest from Israeli securities and weapons manufacturers.[82] Frey said he vetoed the resolution "without hesitation" because he did not support "damaging property and endangering the safety of others".[82]
Plans to rebuild the third precinct
In October 2024, after a visit by JD Vance to the site of Minneapolis's 3rd Police Precinct, which was burned during the 2020 uprising, Frey urged the City Council to approve a plan that replaced the existing structure with a "democracy center".[83][84][85] Critics of the plan have expressed dismay that solicited proposals for alternative uses submitted by community groups were dismissed without due consideration in favor of the democracy center.[86]
The mayor's office performed community engagement to aid in deciding where the 3rd Precinct should be rebuilt, reported results of which pointed toward not rebuilding at the same location.[87] The public engagement process was heavily criticized as designed to manufacture consent for a predetermined plan to rebuild the precinct by way of not allowing respondents to say they did not want the precinct rebuilt at all.[87]
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Minneapolis City Council
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Frey ran in the 2013 Minneapolis City Council election to represent Ward 3. He received the Democratic–Farmer–Labor endorsement, as well as endorsements from more than 40 elected officials and organizations.[88] Frey's platform promised better constituent services,[88] to spur residential development,[88] increase the number and variety of small and local businesses, and push for full funding of affordable housing and address climate change. He defeated incumbent Diane Hofstede with more than 60% of the vote and took office on January 2, 2014.
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As a City Council member, Frey focused on affordable housing, environmental policy, workplace regulations, and voting access. He authored an amendment to the 2015 budget that increased funding for the city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund.[89]
In 2016, Frey authored an ordinance requiring polluters to pay fees based on the amount of pollution they produce. The fees are used to support green business improvements. Since the program's launch, emissions linked to climate change have declined substantially. Frey and the City of Minneapolis were honored at the 2018 U.S. Conference of Mayors for the program's success.[90]
Frey was involved in drafting the council's 2016 paid sick leave ordinance and the 2017 minimum wage ordinance. He was one of the first council members to support a minimum wage ordinance.[91] Frey authored the amendment to the minimum wage ordinance that gave small businesses a longer phase-in than large businesses for implementing the minimum wage.[92]
As chair of the council's Elections Committee, Frey led the effort to pass an ordinance requiring landlords to provide tenants with voter registration information. The ordinance has served as a national model, with cities like Seattle and St. Paul following suit. A federal district court judge later struck down the ordinance as unconstitutional.[93] Frey also led the effort to expand early voting access in Minneapolis ahead of the 2016 election, increasing the number of early voting sites in Minneapolis from one to five.[94]
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Electoral history
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Personal life
Frey married his first wife, Michelle Lilienthal, in 2009, but they divorced shortly after.[98][99][100]
Frey married his second wife, Sarah Clarke, in 2016. Clarke is a lobbyist for Hylden Advocacy & Law, where she represents several business, nonprofits, and community organizations at the Minnesota legislature and executive branch agencies.[101] In 2020, the couple had their first child.[102][103] Their second child was born in July 2025.[104]
Frey, a Reform Jew, attends a Reform synagogue in Minneapolis, Temple Israel, together with his wife, a Jewish convert.[105]
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See also
Notes
References
External links
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