A rising star in the upcoming Minneapolis mayoral campaign, Minnesota state senator Omar Fateh, is bruised but unbowed after having the rug pulled out from under him by the city’s branch of the Minnesota Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party, which rescinded its endorsement after a series of challenges about voting misconduct during the July nominating convention.

The reversal has put a kink in momentum for the 35-year-old Democratic Socialist, who had won the party’s endorsement during the Minneapolis DFL convention despite a deep schism over the conduct of the vote. Nonetheless, with a ranked-choice voting system and a dozen candidates in the race, Mr. Fateh can still overcome his challengers, including incumbent mayor Jacob Frey, who led the objections to the party’s questionable vote count. 

The vote count during the 12-hour event was marred by several turns of events, including a stop to the counting of electronic ballots, errors counting paper ballots, and an eventual count by raising of badges among those in attendance. That questionable methodology was challenged by nearly 100 people including Mr. Frey, who claimed that the vote totals seemed off for the number of delegates on hand.

An internal investigation conducted by the state DFL’s Constitution, Bylaws and Rules Committee found that electronic voting had been “substantially flawed,” with the first round undercounted by 176 votes, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune. That caused the ranked choice to mistakenly eliminate a third candidate, DeWayne Davis, in the early voting.

Supporters of Mr. Fateh, whose platform resembles that of top New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, are outraged. His co-campaign manager Graham Faulkner called the revocation of the endorsement “disenfranchisement of thousands of Minneapolis caucus-goers and the delegates who represented all of us on convention day.” 

“Twenty-eight mostly out-state, establishment Democrats, including many Frey donors and supporters, met privately and voted to overturn the will of Minneapolis residents,” Mr. Faulkner told the Star Tribune.

“The DFL stripping Omar Fateh’s endorsement is a disgrace,” wrote former Minnesota House Delegate Hodan Hassan on X. “Delegates voted, the people spoke—and insiders erased it behind closed doors. This isn’t democracy, it’s sabotage. If grassroots voices can be tossed aside once, they can be tossed aside anytime.

More than a dozen Democratic state and local lawmakers, led by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar also condemned the decision, which has rocked internal Democratic Party harmony. The group called the reversal “a stain on our party for years to come” that will “damage our ability to organize for Democratic wins this year, next year, and beyond.”

While the lack of an official endorsement for Mr. Fateh by the party could slow his roll, no external polling shows how he is faring among the crowded field. And even though he is enjoying incumbency, Mr. Frey faces the challenge of overcoming poor approval ratings. Polling in May showed him with just a 30 percent positive rating among Minneapolis voters.

Despite the dip in support — from 51 percent approval before his re-election in 2021, Mr. Frey is breaking records. He has raised more than $539,000 in July — a record in Minneapolis mayoral campaign history and 40 percent more than what he had earned throughout his previous campaign.

Mr. Fateh has raised far less, earning just shy of $269,000 through July, much of which came after the endorsement. He has just $54,000 in the bank.

Mr. Frey, while performing with lower favorability since his last campaign, also still has backing from major power brokers in the state. Both Senator Amy Klobuchar and Governor Tim Walz have thrown their support behind his re-election.

“Jacob has helped make Minneapolis a national leader on issues like housing, and I’ve been proud to work with him to deliver funding to hire more police officers and fight violent crime,” Mr. Walz said in a statement posted to X. “I am proud to support Mayor Frey’s reelection so that we can continue working together to move Minneapolis into the future.”

Last week, Senator Klobuchar went on offense for Mr. Frey, rebuking Mr. Fateh after reports surfaced that his campaign staffers had glorified Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and called for the destruction of the Jewish state.

“These comments are outrageous and have no place in our politics,” the senator’s spokeswoman, Jane Meyer, said in a statement to Jewish Insider. She was one of the few supporters of Mr. Frey, who is Jewish, to speak about the antisemitic remarks.