Former City Council candidate for Ward 9 Brenda Short announced Tuesday her run for Minneapolis mayor.
Coming from a small town in Iowa to being homeless in Minneapolis with three children, Short said on her website, “I have seen Minneapolis at its worst and want to bring Minneapolis to be Better!”
Incumbent Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has not officially announced his plans for reelection but said in a radio podcast that he would seek his third term.
Minnesota Daily: Why are you running for mayor?
Short: “I decided to run for mayor due to Jesse Diamond’s death in 2017. I followed that story. I met her briefly before her passing and I followed that story to the end and it was actually still going on. As a woman, I was devastated because I think that was a window we as a city could have opened by reforming the police, and I was really devastated because a lot of her story went silent immediately after millions of dollars were given to her family. But as a woman, I was kind of sad about that because even though we knew the Super Bowl was happening. It was still going to come but we didn’t have the right to silence her story. Then, I followed her father after that. He was promised that the police reform was going to happen and it didn’t happen. Three years later, George Floyd happened and every politician around that time was claiming that they wanted reform.”
“Well, they wanted to defund the police. I did run (for City Council) in 2021 and I did not stand for defunding the police because I have a background in criminal justice and I know the law. It’s not a city law. It’s a state law where every city has a certain amount of police officers that has to be here based on the population of that city so I knew defunding the police was not going to happen.”
“I’ve been going to public meetings standing for reform. I believe it needs to be done, not because people want it to be done, but as a person who knows that a police officer, EMT, fire department, our nurses, our doctors all have trauma and they have trauma at work, but they also have trauma at home, and if I could be a leader to make it known that it’s okay to not be okay. That’s the kind of leader I want to be marking my campaign. I want to build a bridge between the community and the peace officers and I say peace officers because police officers don’t live in Minneapolis anymore. I need peace officers, people who want to bring peace to the streets of Minneapolis right now.”
“I am running for mayor because I want our community here, and I want everybody to come to the table and that means our peace officers and our community have to come and hear each other out because if we can’t all get along, this city can’t rebuild itself. I am just so devastated because I think it can be done. A lot of people don’t want to get rid of the police department, they just want them to get help. Everybody keeps on saying. ‘Oh, why are you running?’ Because I want our city to be okay, and we can’t heal like I said, if we all can’t get along.”
Daily: What would your top priorities be if you got elected as mayor?
Short: “It is always housing. As a person who has been unhoused in the city of Minneapolis, I would say I want affordable housing for all of our renters or homeowners and our unhoused neighbors. It is a right to have a roof over your head and not a privilege. So that is my first priority. My second one is creating financial growth that benefits everyone no matter your zip code or your background. I believe the future is where every neighborhood can grow and prosper. I’m a small business owner and because of that, I have seen in the last couple years that construction has not helped our small businesses in Minneapolis, and I want to rebuild that. It’s hard to be a small business owner, but the city can help, and I think I know every construction plan around uptown and everywhere else as it was a real struggle for them, but we should be trying to find them grants to keep their doors open. I love my little shops. I love going to little restaurants. I only have to walk in and I really think every neighborhood should have that. My last one is the hardest and it’s public safety. Our city hasn’t healed for the last four years and we can’t until we all can get along.”
“The community is still not being heard by the leaders who we put in office and that has to change. I always listen to what I’ve been telling people for three years now. Those are my priorities for Minneapolis right now.”
Daily: Do you expect any challenges during your campaign? And if so, what are some of them?
Short: “I have got my challenges already. So I have been attacked at the city level. The city refused to give me my offer or tell me proper information on how to get my candidacy. I called, I went downtown for weeks, and they refused to give me the proper information I had to contact the secretary of state and I went down to that office and I thought she would not. This lady was not listening to me. She just wrote my name down and said I’m going to call you back. She called me back with a direct number and she said, ‘Look, I can only tell you, they’re going to deny you. You stand on your word. Just keep on pushing them in that phone, do not let them get off the phone call because you were supposed to have that ability to register.’ I learned in running, that as a campaign you have to register your candidacy so you can collect money so you can print documents and say here’s what I’m running for and what I am.”
“Another challenge was that I hired my campaign manager Jake who will no longer be working on my team as of today. I had a press release and I sent it to Jake and all he had to do was forward it. I even gave him the emails to all the newspapers and all Fox 9, KARE 11 numbers. Jake sent in the press release and then I kept on asking him. I said ‘Jake, did you follow up? Did you hear anything back?’ And he said, ‘Oh I’ll call right now,’ and he kept on saying he got voicemails up until. The time of my press release was on Tuesday and the people came but the news people didn’t come so I called Fox and they said they got the documents, but it didn’t give a date or time. I’m like ‘No, it was there,’ and I looked on my email and he said, ‘No, we got it from Jake, but it wasn’t there,’ so the email I sent Jake had the information on it, but Jake sent it to Fox 9 without the proper information on it and he had even deleted the date line where it said date and time and I was like, ‘Okay, that was a mistake.’”
“And then when I called him on it, he’s like, ‘Oh, my bad.’ So then that was my first knowledge that you are trying to destroy my campaign within the campaign. I cried about it yesterday, got up (today) and wrote his termination letter this morning and I hadn’t had time to talk to him. I was going to talk to him later on today. So I guess he’ll read it in the newspaper.”
Daily: Why shouldn’t Mayor Frey get a third term?
Short: “He’s not listening to the community. He isn’t, I don’t know who he’s listening to because Mayor Frey has not been in the chambers all year. I go to City Council meetings all the time. I see every 13 (council members) there. His chair is empty. Sometimes they don’t put his name up there and I only see him in publicity stunts on TV. ‘Oh, we did this for the community or this,’ I see him all the time on the news. I don’t even remember the last time he had to sit down for coffee. He used to have coffee on breaks when you could come and sit with him, open doors or something. If you’re going to be a mayor you have to be a part of the community. You can’t just get a paycheck and think it’s okay and then when something happens, such as the gentleman who got shot by his neighbor and you didn’t do anything.”
Daily: Is there anything we didn’t cover that you would like people to know about your campaign?
Short: “I know they didn’t picture an African woman running. I’m just a person. I’m part of the community whether I’m running or not. Even if I get into office, I’m still part of this community. I don’t want them to think that because they give me the title of mayor, I would not stop and talk to them. I talk to everyone. On top of that, I just believe that they should know about me if I’m ready for transparency. I want to see the city council listening to the people and hearing what they have to say.”
This interview has been edited for clarity, grammar and length.
