MINNEAPOLIS – Jeremiah Ellison, the progressive, north-raised Minneapolis city councilman who has represented Ward 5 for nearly a decade, will not run for re-election next year.
Ellison, 35, announced this on Tuesday morning on Xsaying he will continue his “urgent and rigorous fight for the North Side” for the remainder of his third term.
“After winning three elections, supporting innovative policies, weathering a pandemic and some of our toughest years as a city, and doing my part to improve the North Side, it is with immense pride and satisfaction that I announce that I will not seek new elections. elections in 2025,” Ellison said.
Ellison was a self-proclaimed “artist, muralist and organizerbefore defeating incumbent Blong Yang in 2017, representing six Northside neighborhoods including North Loop, Near-North and Willard-Hay.
Yang, the city’s first-ever Hmong-American council member, fell out of favor with many in his district during the crisis occupation of the Minneapolis Police Department’s 4th District next the police shooting death of Jamar Clark in 2015.
Jeremiah Ellison’s presence at the police station protests came to prominence thanks to his notable father, then-U.S. Congressman Keith Ellison, now Minnesota’s attorney general.
Two years into his term on the City Council, Ellison became one of the movement’s most outspoken members dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department in response to the murder of George Floyd in May 2020.
Days after the protests and civil unrest subsided, Ellison took to social media to call for the department’s dismantling.
“And when we’re done, we’re not going to just glue it back together. We’re going to dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response. It’s really too late,” Ellison said.
Weeks later, the council voted unanimously to remove the police department requirement from the city charter, but a New York Times article in September 2020 explained the disharmony in the council in response to the national backlash against the ‘defund the police’ movement.
“It’s important that you bring your own morality into some of these decisions. And if you make the wrong decision, look, sometimes that’s the price of trying to be brave,” Ellison told the New York Times in 2020. “I’m ashamed that we haven’t been able to bring about the kind of change that I think people deserve.”
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Ellison and two other council members who were the most prominent defund advocates – Steve Fletcher and Jeremy Schroeder – were not approved by their DFL party in 2021.
The city’s police charter amendment was rejected by voters in November 2021 five council members were voted outincluding Fletcher and Schroeder. Ellison survived and called for unity in the council.
“We can’t have another George Floyd in our city,” Ellison said days after the election. “We must end this gun violence crisis, we must join this work together.”
In July, Ellison was one of four dissenting council members on the vote that approved the proposal the city’s new police contract, which gave officers historic pay increases.
He is also an outspoken supporter of rent control and affordable housing in the city. He was among the council members who voted in 2019 to delay the $200 million grant Upper Harbor Terminal Project at the Port of Minneapolis site on the north side to ensure the inclusion of affordable housing.
The fight for rent control became personal in 2023 the council voted down a proposal to put rent stabilization before voters. Ellison and two other Muslim members – Aisha Chughtai and Jamal Osman – were absent from the vote because it took place on Eid al-Adha.
“In taking this action at the expense of their Muslim colleagues, the Council has taken an action that not only neglected the will of the voters, but the way in which they did so violated the trust and understanding of a significant portion of our community,” the statement said. spokesman. Three council members wrote this in a joint statement.
In 2022, the trio also spoke out against subsequent fellow councilor Michael Rainville his comments about the Somali community in the wake of the chaos that erupted downtown on the Fourth of July.
In January, Ellison stormed the City Council meeting the troubled Merwin Liquor location on the north side after telling veteran community activist Al Flowers to “shut up.” Flowers questioned why he was in favor of renewing the permit since he is Muslim. Ellison quickly backtracked and apologized for violating council rules.
Ellison fought for it too reduce the number of vacant buildingsespecially on the north side, but also at the end his neighborhood’s food desert crisis.
He currently serves as vice chairman of the city’s Business, Housing & Zoning Committee.
“I have one year left and I plan to serve diligently until my last day in office,” Ellison said.
