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City Cast Twin Cities

City Cast Twin Cities

✅ Kaohly Her is the next mayor of St. Paul

November 5, 2025

Good morning, Twin Cities! It’s Adam today. I hope you were able to make it out to vote yesterday! We probably won't know all of the election results by the time this email gets to you since ranked-choice voting takes a while to count, but look out for an extra update this afternoon on our podcast feed.

What the Cities Are Talking About

Several adults stand at separate voting booths filling out election ballots in a large, bright room.
Minneapolis residents fill out their ballots at a polling location on Election Day. (Stephen Maturen / Getty Images)

Municipal Election Results (So Far)

While some of the ranked-choice decisions like the Minneapolis mayoral election are still being counted, many races have been decided. You can check out all of the most up-to-date information on MPR News. [MPR News]

  • Stunning Upset: Kaohly Her pulled off the unlikely to beat Melvin Carter in the St. Paul mayoral race. By ousting her former boss, Her will become the first woman and the first Hmong American to be elected mayor of St. Paul. Not only that, but she will also be a part of a historic leadership team at the city level, which has a city council made up entirely of women. [MPR News]
  • City Council Shake-Up: Elizabeth Schaffer won in Ward 7, beating incumbent Katie Cashman. This was a big win for centrist Democrats, and was also the most well-funded city council race in the election – Shaffer raised $248,378 and Cashman raised $119,438. Centrists won another seat with Jamison Whiting in Ward 11, and progressives picked up a seat in Ward 8 with Soren Stevenson's victory. [Bring Me The News / Star Tribune]
  • How did your neighborhood vote? Sahan Journal put together great interactive maps of both Minneapolis and St. Paul that show how residents in each precinct voted for mayor. Do you agree with your neighbors? [Sahan Journal]
  • Minneapolis Mayoral Update: Votes for mayor of Minneapolis are still being counted at the time of this email. Incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey ended the first round of voting with a 10-point lead over challenger Omar Fateh, but it's still possible Fateh could win if he gets enough second and third choice votes from DeWayne Davis and Jazz Hampton (and if that sounded confusing to you, check out my quick explainer on how ranked-choice voting works). [Sahan Journal]

Also Worth Your Time

Asking the big questions: Why do some grocers price milk at twice the amount as other stores? In a recent Racket piece, reporter Conrad Zbikowski exposed the grand conspiracy to charge different amounts for the same milk, and to let you know where to get it the cheapest (it's good ol’ Aldi). Tune into today's episode of City Cast Twin Cities to hear our team's hot takes on cold milk. [Racket / City Cast Twin Cities]

Wrestling with a purpose: Midwest All-Star Wrestling is a Native-owned promoter that's trading chair shots for community support. They're known for bringing in ring legends and hometown talent alike, and have raised over $175,000 for Women of Nations, a nonprofit that runs a shelter for Native women in St. Paul. [Sahan Journal]

A large group of parents and children sit across a bus decorated with Christmas lights in downtown in the evening.
Children watch a decorated bus go by in the Holidazzle parade in downtown Minneapolis. (Star Tribune via Getty Images)

Downtown's new big idea: Since scrapping the wildly popular Holidazzle winter festival in downtown Minneapolis, the Mpls Downtown Council has announced plans for its successor – Winterapolis. While organizers are adding some new events like the Polar Bear Pub Crawl (hell yeah), it's mostly a branding move to give a single name to all of the awesome winter activities going on and to make Minneapolis known nationwide as "America's Winter City". I'm pretty sure we're already well-known for our winters, but go off, I guess. [MSP Business Journal]

SNAP partially funded: Following court orders from two separate lawsuits, the USDA has agreed to release $4.65 billion from its contingency funds to partially fund SNAP. The payout is expected to cover roughly half of the monthly benefits nationally, but it’s unclear exactly how much Minnesota households will receive or when those benefits will arrive. [Star Tribune]

Indigenous food programs step up: When the federal shutdown threatened food access, Native‑led programs in the Twin Cities stepped in. They’ve been distributing culturally‑relevant meals and other support to meet rising demand, and they'll keep helping to fill the gaps while SNAP isn't fully funded and beyond. [MPR News]

What to Do

Wednesday, November 5

Thursday, November 6

Friday, November 7

More Twin Cities Events

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I can't leave without acknowledging that the Purple Rain musical is opening tonight for its first non-preview showing! A couple of City Cast staffers are going tonight, so we'll let you know when our reviews are in. See you later!

— Adam Sage

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