Minneapolis City Council’s Ward 9 seat Council is open for the taking, since Alondra Cano announced in December she would not seek reelection.
The ward is home to a diverse population of immigrants and communities of color and includes chunks of East Lake Street that were most impacted by last summer’s uprising. Ward 9 includes sites like Powderhorn Park, the Little Earth housing project (where the historic American Indian Movement got its start), South High School, Mercado Central, and the Somali Museum of Minnesota.
The border of the ward reaches the northeast corner of George Floyd Square.
Earlier this month, Jason Chavez secured the endorsement from the Minneapolis DFL, winning 69 percent of ballots. Other progressive endorsements—like those from Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America, and Stonewall DFL—have also gone to Chavez. Chavez grew up in an immigrant household in Minneapolis and attended Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, near East Lake Street. He eventually led the Minnesota Young DFL and is now the committee legislative aide for the workforce and business development committee at the Legislature and an aide to Representatives Mohamud Noor and John Thompson.
Mickey Moore, a longtime business owner who established Minneapolis’ Braid Factory, has emerged as the chosen candidate for Operation Safety Now, a nonpartisan group concerned about public safety; the Minneapolis Area DFL Seniors Caucus, a group of Democrats representing senior citizens; Minneapolis’ firefighters union; and others. Moore was also a Congressional candidate from the Legal Marijuana Now party, who contested Ilhan Omar’s seat in last year’s election.
Haji Yussuf has been endorsed by state Representative Hodan Hassan, Park Board Commissioner AK Hassan, and the Somali Business Association. He is a Somali immigrant from Kenya who came to Minneapolis 22 years ago and founded a multilingual advertising agency before joining the Minnesota Department of Revenue. Haji ran for the DFL nomination for U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar’s seat last year, but when he did not receive the endorsement, he backed out of the race and endorsed Ilhan.
Sahan Journal interviewed these three candidates over the phone last week about some of their policies and priorities for office, including public safety and policing, rebuilding businesses after the COVID-19 lockdown and civil unrest, and how the city should address housing and the unhoused population.
Two others have announced their bid for the seat and remain in the race, but neither participated in this candidate profile. (Margarita Ortega, a Native American and Latina community organizer, dropped out of the race in April.) Carmen Means, a community organizer and pastor, did not respond to social media messages, emails, or texts from Sahan Journal. And AJ Flowers, an outreach specialist for a nonprofit and son of former mayoral candidate Al Flowers, scheduled an interview and then did not answer the call or subsequent calls and text messages.
