Endorsement: Jeremiah Ellison for Minneapolis City Council in Ward 5

This should be an easy one. Jeremiah Ellison has focused his first term authoring a series of renter protections ordinances. He’s a real progressive, a community leader and an essential voice on the City Council. When others lose the thread, he has a knack for bringing the conversation back to what’s important. He isn’t a bomb thrower. I find him to be extremely solutions-focused. But he is clear, direct, and sharp.

I’ll say it again: Jeremiah Ellison is an essential voice on this Council. That goes especially for our current public safety debate.

Victor Martinez says he’s a Democrat but voted a Republican ballot in the 2020 Minnesota Presidential Primary. He’s the pastor of a homophobic church. He had a booking page for his luxury car rental business on the website for his homophobic church. When I scrolled back far enough into his campaign YouTube channel, I realized it had been converted from a church-themed channel — I thought it was weird that one of the videos was about bitcoin. He is a living, breathing red flag, in the style of Mickey Moore.

Aside from the weirdness, Martinez is a throwback, a caricature of the kind of candidate the police union would have enthusiastically endorsed back when the police union thought their endorsement would be helpful. He’s so far out as a candidate that I didn’t even want to talk about him until it became clear he was competitive (I had a conversation with him a few months ago and I can see why some might find him personally charming or appealing). He almost achieved the 60% required to get the DFL endorsement (in a very low turnout caucus and convention process).

Make Jeremiah Ellison your first choice in Ward 5.

Do not rank Victor Martinez. I would rank Kristel Porter second as a way to block Victor Martinez. Porter is against Question 2, the public safety charter amendment. I’ll direct you to Naomi Kritzer for more info.