Who Is Jacob Frey?

Since the mayor of Minneapolis has been in the news quite a bit lately, I thought it might be a good idea to find out more about what makes him tick. Even though I only scratched the surface, researching Frey’s background was a real learning experience.

First of all, what is it that has made Frey lash out so forcefully against ICE’s presence in his city? Part of it comes from his Jewish heritage, and part from Minneapolis being a “sanctuary city” (more on that later). As a Reformed Jew, Frey strongly believes in the “social justice” agenda favored by most progressives. This means, according to the Reformed Jews organizational site, support of civil rights issues, including equality for the LGBTQ community, hate crimes legislation, criminal justice reforms, disability rights, and legislative protections from religious discrimination in the workplace as important parts of their belief system. So is the duty to “champion the poor and the needy.” This helps explain why Frey so vigorously defends the Somali immigrants, who are an important voting bloc in his city. His track record on the Minneapolis city council and then in the mayor’s office is reflective of his progressive positions. And yet, to some of the ultra-left voters in his city, Frey has not gone far enough to satisfy them.

Frey was raised in a Jewish family with his original roots in Virginia. He was a track and field star who attended the College of William & Mary on an athletic scholarship. He later graduated cum laude from Villanova with a law degree. Moving to Minneapolis in 2009, he worked as a lawyer on employment discrimination and civil rights law. He entered politics shortly thereafter and won a seat on the Minneapolis city council in 2013. From there, he was eventually elected to his first term as the city’s mayor in 2017. It’s important to note that during his tenure as the city’s chief executive, the George Floyd incident and subsequent rioting occurred, as well as the current chaotic situation between ICE agents and oftentimes vitriolic protesters.

In response to the Floyd incident, Frey agreed with the arrest and subsequent guilty verdict for Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, thus agreeing with the erroneous conclusion (since proven false) that Floyd was actually murdered by Chauvin’s actions. Although he supported nonviolent protests against the police actions with Floyd, Frey claimed later that he approached Governor Tim Walz for National Guard support to quell the violent aspects of the protests, and the governor refused.

Minneapolis’s status as a “sanctuary city” dates back to 2003 with the creation of a separation ordinance that prohibits local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration authorities in deportation actions. Thus, it had already been in place for some time when Frey became the mayor; however, he certainly has given his full-throated support to the ordinance as well as the sanctuary status that goes with it. This ordinance is what Frey leans on to justify his lack of support for ICE, and the city’s sanctuary status emboldens his sense of moral outrage at what ICE is trying to do – even when it comes to deporting illegal aliens who have criminal track records.

Frey was actually challenged from the left in his latest run for mayor last year by state Senator Omar Fateh, who initially had the endorsement of Frey’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, only to have that support revoked on technicalities. However, Fateh received over 44% of the vote compared to Frey’s 50-plus percent, so his reelection was hardly a slam dunk.

From a broader perspective, Mayor Frey’s progressive bent, along with his Reformed Jewish faith, can help us see why seemingly inexplicable voting patterns may actually make sense. Since Reformed Jews align with the progressive agenda and are a majority of the Jewish population in America, it shouldn’t shock us that they vote heavily Democratic and that this voting bloc has a significant influence on election results. Other evidence that Reformed Jews may place more emphasis on the progressive agenda than they do on God is their relatively poor attendance at synagogue (14%), versus such attendance for Orthodox Jews (83%). In my opinion, all of this helps explain how the antisemitic Marxist Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City with an otherwise surprising amount of Jewish support.

In sum, progressive leaders like Jacob Frey believe that they have both the law and a moral cause on their side, and that is why, for them, there’s no backing down in the latest confrontations with ICE. If there’s a way to reason with politicians like Frey, it certainly doesn’t involve bad-mouthing, like calling him a “moron” in trying to reduce his stature. Based on his background, he’s obviously anything but a moron; misguided, certainly, but far from stupid. How President Trump, Homeland Security, and ICE deal with Minneapolis and other such cases throughout the country may help determine the outcome of the coming midterm elections, and not necessarily in a good way.