A “Racist and Factless Meltdown” Over Omar Fateh, Democratic Socialist and Minneapolis Mayoral Candidate

Although I’m not (yet) a U.S. citizen, I do my best to advocate for and support genuine leftist and/or progressive movements and candidates.

Socialist Kshama Sawant says that “If you are a progressive, the road for your movement inside the Democratic Party leads to a graveyard.” I must admit I go back and forth in fully agreeing with this contention, and for sure I’d prefer a progressive candidate to run outside the corporatist Democratic Party. But when a progressive candidate does run as a Democratic, I usually do what I can to support them, hoping against hope that they will spark a radical transformation of the party. Examples of such candidates include Bernie Sanders, Marianne Williamson, Nina Turner, Ilhan Omar, and Zohran Mandani. I also support candidates who run completely outside the Republican/Democratic duopoly, mostly Green Party folks like Jill Stein and Butch Ware.

Now that I’m back in Minneapolis from my recent Australian sojourn, I’ve determined that Omar Fateh (left) is the Minneapolis mayoral candidate I’ll be supporting. He has a great energy, a record as a Minnesota state senator of “working across the aisle” to get important things done, and a much-needed progressive platform, not dissimilar to New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Both are democratic socialists running in the Democratic Party. And like Mamdani, Fateh is receiving some really vile racist comments and attacks from the right.

Following is John Iadarola and Brian Unger’s take on all of this as presented earlier today on The Damage Report podcast.





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Related Off-site Links:
Who Is Omar Fateh? Mamdani of Minneapolis Faces MAGA Abuse – Kate Plummer (Newsweek, July 15, 2025).
CAIR-Minnesota Condemns Anti-Muslim, Racist Hate Targeting Sen. Omar Fateh Amid Rising Political Violence – CAIR-Minnesota (July 15, 2025).
Minneapolis Gets Its Own Mamdani – Kayla Bartsch (National Review, July 15, 2025).
“Somalians Shouldn’t Run for Office in the U.S.”: Hate Floods In as Omar Fateh Runs for Minneapolis Mayor – The Economic Times (July 14, 2025).
Minneapolis Mayoral Candidate Omar Fateh Faces Racist Trolling: “Go to Mogadishu” – Times of India (July 14, 2025).
Omar Fateh Will Work Across the Aisle If Elected Mayor – Melody Hoffmann (Southwest Voices, April 2, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• What It Means to Be a Leftist in 2025
• Ted Rall: Democrats Are Not “the Left”
• My Summer of Supporting Progressive Down-Ballot Candidates
• Building Solidarity on the Left
• “It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• Fighting the Rich and Their Two Parties
• “No Kings”? Absolutely. But Also “No Oligarchy”
• Norman Solomon: Quote of the Day – June 16, 2025
• Peter Bloom: Quote of the Day – June 10, 2025
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• Eric Fernández: Quote of the Day – May 14, 2025
• Progressive Perspectives on Bernie Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” Tour
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• An Opportunity for Organizing Against Duopoly
• Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
• A Timely Conversation
• Breaking the Mold: Why Progressives Should Push for Marianne Williamson to Lead the DNC
• Inauguration Day Thoughts
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Election
• “A New Chapter of the Democratic Party Needs to Begin”
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration
• Jill Stein: “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
• We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
• Peter Bloom on the Unmasking of the “Democratic Charade”
• When Democrats Undermine Democracy
• Elise Labott on How Third Parties Can Revitalize Democracy
• Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
• Centrist/Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season
• “Americans Deserve Choices”: Jill Stein on Breaking Points – 4/30/24
• AOC Falls in Line
• The Cassandra of U.S. Politics on the “True State of the Union”
• Mark Harris: Quote of the Day – August 10, 2023
• Will Democrats Never Learn?
• Heather Cox Richardson on the Origin of the American Obsession with “Socialism”
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – June 12, 2019
• “The Next Step Is a Green Step”: Cornel West Endorses Jill Stein (2016)
• Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein: Is a “Historic Collaboration” in the Making?
• Terry Eagleton: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2011
• Playwright Tony Kushner on Being a Socialist
• A Socialist Response to the Financial Crisis (2008)
• Capitalism on Trial
• R.I.P. Neoclassical Economics
• Hope Over Fear: Voting Green