Minneapolis voters re-elected Jacob Frey as mayor, in a tight race that took two rounds of tabulation to determine a winner. 

The race came down to Frey and challenger Kate Knuth, who followed Frey by 15,000 votes once the second and third choice votes were calculated. 

This is the first city election after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. After the murder of George Floyd and following protests, public safety and policing were top priorities for many candidates and voters. 

Frey won over 42% of the first choice votes, but he needed over 50% to be elected mayor, so the second and third choice votes were tabulated to determine the total. Frey received 11% of the second choice votes, which was just enough to reach the total votes needed to be elected mayor. 

Nezhad trailed behind Frey with about 21% first choice votes, and Kate Knuth received about 18%. Knuth received the most second-choice votes of any candidate. 

Frey was first elected as the Minneapolis mayor in 2017, after serving as the Ward three Council member. 

Frey has said that he plans to build more affordable housing and strengthen police-community relationships as mayor. He has faced backlash from citizens about his plans to hire more police officers instead of cutting funds from the force. 

Since January, Frey raised nearly triple the funds of any of his challengers at $676,271. Candidate A.J. Awed raised about $260,000 with Sheila Nezhad close behind. 

After the polls closed Tuesday, several of the candidates celebrated with parties into the night. 

About 11% of registered Minneapolis voters chose to vote early this year, breaking the municipal election record for most early votes. 

Lydia Morrell and Emalyn Muzzy contributed to this report.