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Of all the Minneapolis City Council races on the ballot this year, the battle to represent Uptown in particular stands out as a microcosm of the city’s fractured political scene.
A democratic socialist who is one of the mayor’s chief antagonists on the council, Aisha Chughtai, is fighting to keep her seat in an especially liberal pocket of the city. Her opponent, Lydia Millard, wants the city to beef up public safety efforts to help revive Uptown’s small-business corridors.
A crowd packed into Queermunity on Tuesday night to see the candidates face off at a League of Women Voters forum, which also included candidate DeShanneon Grimes. (Queermunity is a gathering space on Hennepin Avenue in the heart of Uptown.)
A lot of Uptown-area business interests support Millard, as evidenced by the ovation she received at a spring event I attended about a new improvement district. But businesses don’t vote. Lawns across Uptown are also peppered with Millard signs — another indicator of support. But most of the ward’s residents live in apartment buildings.
So there’s no sense trying to predict the outcome. Chughtai handily won re-election in 2023 with only 3,800 votes. More people likely strolled down Hennepin Avenue during the Open Streets event in late September, where both candidates were campaigning on a recent Saturday.
City Council Candidate Lydia Millard speaks to attendees at Hennepin Open Streets in September. (Eric Roper)
“I’ve seen the way that our neighborhood has … become a ghost town,” Millard told me amid the lively bustle of the festival. “And I’m looking to change that by prioritizing public safety, supporting and bringing in businesses … and then just getting back to the basics of constituent services.”
Chughtai, the vice president of the council, has been a vocal thorn in the side of Mayor Jacob Frey. She argued at Tuesday’s forum that she’s merely been following through on her constituents’ priorities.