Election wrap-up: Northsiders re-elect Frey, Vetaw and a new member of city council
Minneapolis City Councilmember-elect Pearll Warren celebrated early returns Nov. 4 with her campaign manager, Scott Graham. Warren will replace Jeremiah Ellison, who is retiring as the Ward 5 representative after three terms. Photo by David Pierini
By David Pierini and Melody Hoffman, North News
The following reports are on the 2025 Minneapolis City elections from a North Minneapolis perspective.
Ward 5 is her oyster
Pearll Warren found the groove of a Mystikal song the DJ was spinning as she danced into her election night party to cheering supporters. Her steps ushered in a new kind of Ward 5 representative to the Minneapolis City Council.
Warren won the open seat with 48.4% of the vote and will replace the retiring Jeremiah Ellison. Her closest challenger, City of Minneapolis employee Ethrophic Burnett, finished the race with 34.2%.
“All I asked people to do was rank me, and later, you can thank me,” Warren told supporters at Pryes Brewery on Nov. 4 after the polls closed. “North Minneapolis is a beautiful, mosaic gateway, and I am honored beyond measure to stand in representation of my community. I am honored and uplifted by the love.”
Warren established a constant online presence from the beginning of her campaign last December and, along with resources from All of Mpls, the PAC supporting Mayor Jacob Frey, she maintained greater visibility than the challengers.
Warren outraised her opponents and All of Mpls, spending more than $100,000 through Oct. 20, according to campaign finance reports. Warren’s election adds another Frey ally to the City Council. Ellison largely voted in line with the City Council's progressive majority.
Ellison had a historic and consequential three terms on the City Council. He championed renters’ rights and affordable housing, pressed project planners to consider anti-displacement measures for residents and local businesses along the proposed Blue Line extension route, and fiercely fought for police reforms following George Floyd’s murder.
When word about a prolonged heat outage at a Northside apartment complex reached him in January, Ellison mobilized city resources to address the crisis.
But some residents and community leaders often complained that Ellison could be disengaged and hard to reach by phone or to schedule a meeting.
Ellison tried to be responsive, but he seemed to work more comfortably at a higher altitude, where he could see the thorns and knots of the many challenges facing the ward and the greater city.
By contrast, Warren, a political newcomer, seems more at ease on the ground with people, said Kristel Porter, executive director of the West Broadway Business and Area Coalition.
Porter said she believes Warren will be a great advocate for North Minneapolis.
“It’s nice actually to have somebody we can relate to in that space, somebody you can access, somebody who will show up to a meeting,” Porter said. “City Council is one of those jobs where you have to get in the weeds, you need to go to the people.”
On the morning of Election Day, Britnee Williams arrived at Warren’s house to see her taking charge.
It just wasn’t the kind of energy you would expect from a front-runner on the day voters might decide a new course for Warren.
Williams found her sister braiding a campaign worker's hair and working her phone to find housing for another person who stopped by.
“She’s always so busy helping people, but she won’t talk about it,” Williams said. “This is second nature, it’s like she is called to do it.”
Northsider loses mayoral bid
DeWayne Davis speaks to supporters at LUSH on election night, Nov. 4. Photo by Azhae’la Hanson
The Rev. DeWayne Davis lost to incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey. Davis was the first to announce his mayoral candidacy in December 2024.
The election was decided on Nov. 5 after ranked-choice voting tabulations eliminated Davis and Jazz Hampton, leaving Frey and Sen. Omar Fateh as the final vote recipients.
Frey received the most votes on the Northside, despite Davis being from the Willard-Hay neighborhood. Frey received 7,024 overall votes to 5,889 votes for Davis in Wards 4 and 5. Frey received 5,446 first-choice votes in Wards 4 and 5 combined, compared to 1,470 for Davis.
“We knew that we were going to be an insurgent grassroots campaign,” Davis said at his election party on Nov. 4. “The odds are against that kind of campaign. But I am really proud of what we did, and I think we shaped the conversation in a fundamental way.”
Fateh performed strongest in Ward 5 where he lost to Frey by 399 votes in first-choice votes, in Ward 4 that loss to Frey stretched to 927 first-choice votes.
Vetaw coasts in Ward 4. Two Northsiders win park board seats
City Councilmember LaTrisha Vetaw claimed an easy victory to retain her Ward 4 seat, defeating two returning challengers, Marvina Haynes and Leslie Davis.
Vetaw tallied 4,039 votes, nearly double that of Haynes. Davis, who continued to campaign on the claim that COVID-19 was a hoax, finished with 443 votes.
New councilmembers considered to have Vetaw’s moderate sensibilities will join her. Pearll Warren won in Ward 5, replacing the retiring Ellison. Elizabeth Shaffer, a commissioner on the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, defeated incumbent Katie Cashman in Ward 7.
Northsiders will occupy two seats on the Park & Recreation Board. Charles Rucker ran unopposed for the District 2 seat. Rucker joined the Park Board in 2023 as an at-large commissioner after Alicia Crudup resigned. Newcomer Amber Frederick, who briefly considered running for the open Ward 5 council seat, was one of three at-large members elected on Nov. 4.
Visit vote.minneapolismn.gov for complete 2025 election results.