How Does Jacob Frey’s 2025 Victory Rank in Minneapolis History?

Frey’s winning vote percentage in all three of his victories rank among the lowest of the 74 mayoral elections in City history

This is the first in a series of reports on Minneapolis municipal elections

Last Tuesday, Minneapolis elected a mayor with the backing of a majority of voters for the first time since the first cycle in which ranked choice voting (RCV) was introduced in its municipal elections in 2009. Two-term incumbent Jacob Frey eked out a majority of 50.03 percent after the second round – a scant 45 votes clear of a plurality win.

Creating majority winners is one of the pillars of RCV per FairVote Minnesota (its leading advocate in the state), naming an “antiquated plurality voting method” as the root cause of divisiveness and polarization in Minnesota and the country.

And yet, despite adopting the RCV system, three mayoral races in the city have already resulted in plurality winners. A 2021 Smart Politics analysis found that half of the municipal elections triggering RCV still resulted in plurality winners across two-dozen single-seat elections in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and St. Louis Park.

Although Frey is on track to become one of the longest-serving mayors in Minneapolis history, he has done so despite receiving comparatively modest support at the ballot box.

Smart Politics reviewed the results of the 74 mayoral elections held in Minneapolis since its first contest in 1867 and found that Frey has won with the third, 10th, and 14th lowest percentages of the vote in city history. Minneapolis’ other RCV-triggered winner, Betsy Hodges, won with the ninth lowest support.

The manner in which Minneapolis elects its mayors has changed over the decades – parties selecting its nominees at conventions, top-two non-partisan primaries, partisan primaries (often yielding more than two candidates on the general election ballot), and now the current ranked choice voting system which eschews primaries and party labels entirely.

The weakest support recorded by a winning Minneapolis mayoral candidate was incumbent J.C. Haynes in 1910.

Haynes won his fourth nonconsecutive two-year term with just 33.78 percent of the vote that cycle – less than three-dozen votes ahead of former 2nd Ward Alderman William Satterlee (33.69 percent). Socialist and machinist union president (and future mayor) Thomas Van Lear was a close third with 30.9 percent. Accountant and Prohibitionist Frank Mellen was a distant fourth with 1.6 percent.

Minneapolis voters elected mayors with a plurality north of 40 percent in a dozen other cycles; Frey owns two of these.

The 44.69 percent Frey won en route to his first term in 2017 ranks as the third lowest in Minneapolis history. Sixteen candidates were eliminated after five rounds with Frey ultimately defeating DFL State Representative Ray Dehn by 11.2 points.

Just ahead of Frey for the second lowest percentage of the vote won in a Minneapolis mayoral election is the embattled A.A. Ames, who received 43.80 percent to win his fourth (and abbreviated) non-consecutive term in 1900.

Ames defeated four other candidates in that race: Democratic incumbent James Gray (32.19 percent), independent prohibitionist and agricultural implements merchant William J. Dean (22.85 percent), Socialist Labor candidate Ole Olson (0.6 percent) and Social Democrat Asa Kingsbury (0.6 percent).

Frey won 49.08 percent during his successful 2021 reelection bid – the 10th lowest percentage in city history. His 50.03 percent tally in 2025 ranks 14th and is now the lowest among all 61 majority-eclipsing mayoral victors.

The full list of plurality winning candidates in Minneapolis mayoral elections is as follows:

• 1910 (33.78 percent): Three (nonconsecutive)-term Mayor J.C. Haynes
• 1900 (43.80 percent): Former three-term Mayor A.A. Ames
• 2017 (44.69 percent): Sitting 3rd Ward City Councilor Jacob Frey
• 1973 (45.89 percent): Former 3rd Ward Alderman Al Hoftstede
• 1975 (45.95 percent): Former two-term Mayor Charles Stenvig
• 1904 (46.59 percent): Former 5th Ward Alderman and ex-Acting Mayor David Jones
• 1908 (47.37 percent): Mayor J.C. Haynes
• 1892 (48.22 percent): Attorney and real estate dealer William H. Eustis
• 2013 (48.95 percent): Two-term 13th Ward City Councilor Betsy Hodges
• 2021 (49.08 percent): Mayor Jacob Frey
• 1894 (49.36 percent): Former 3rd Ward Alderman and sitting School Board member Robert Pratt
• 1898 (49.67 percent): Newspaper editor and journalist James Gray
• 1874 (49.72 percent): Former 2nd CD U.S. Representative and ex-Mayor Eugene Wilson

It is true that Frey has received an increasing number of votes in each of his reelection campaigns, peaking at 73,723 votes this cycle.

However, that raw vote tally does not even crack the Top 10 in Minneapolis history despite the city boasting its fifth highest number of registered voters in a municipal election cycle this year.

Although Minneapolis’ population peaked around the 1950 U.S. Census (521,718 residents) and is still nearly 30K below its level in 1930 (464,356), only four municipal election cycles produced more registered voters than the 2025 cycle.

Three of these cycles took place during the population boom of the 1950s: 1953 (274,854 registered voters), 1955 (285,636), and 1957 (275,579). The 2021 cycle (268,929) also appears to have recorded a few hundred more registered voters than 2025 (268,609).

Despite that backdrop, Frey’s raw vote tally ranks as only the 16th highest in city history – trailing 13 winning candidates…plus two losing candidates.

The number of Minneapolis residents voting for Frey ranks behind the following mayors:

• George Leach: 1921 (78K), 1937 (89K), and 1939 (82K)
• A.G. Bainbridge: 1933 (74K)
• Thomas Latimer: 1935 (89K)
• Marvin Kline: 1941 (80K)
• Hubert Humphrey: 1945 (86K) and 1947 (102K)
• Eric Hoyer: 1949 (82K), 1951 (100K), and 1953 (76K)
• Charles Stenvig: 1969 (75K) and 1971 (81K)

Frey also trails Farmer-Laborite co-operative creamery executive Toralf Eide who lost the 1939 and 1941 elections with 74.9K and 74.5K votes respectively.

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