The next Mayor of Minneapolis?

A conversation with the Rev. Dr. DeWayne Davis ...

In an America rife with cynicism, despair, and political exhaustion - it’s rare to hear anew the politics of Hope. But perhaps the Rev. Dr. DeWayne Davis, son of Mississippi sharecroppers, believer in the Beloved Community of the Civil Rights movement, adopted son of Minnesota’s tradition of progressive, multi-faith-based organizing … is exactly what our country needs now.

I first became aware of Dr. Davis in 2013, when he addressed a group of seminary students at Luther Seminary. At the time, Davis was serving as Senior Pastor of All God’s Children Metropolitan Community Church in Minneapolis. I had started seminary with deeply conservative views and a wariness about acceptance of LGBTQ+ people in ministry, and Davis (who has been married to his husband, Kareem Murphy, since 1991) was one of the people who helped me in my journey toward greater acceptance and understanding of the fullness of God’s inclusion and love. I heard in his words and story a depth of wisdom, love and grace that struck a deep chord with me. I was also impressed when I learned that he’d come to ministry after a decades-long career as a Congressional legislative aide and public policy advisor, with a degree in economics from Howard, and a master’s degree in government and politics from the University of Maryland - College Park.

I continued to watch Davis’ work in Minneapolis over the next several years. After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, I watched him co-lead the Minneapolis Community Safety Working Group with Minneapolis NAACP President Nekima Levy Armstrong (Armstrong has now endorsed him for Mayor). In times when American politicians are best-known for snark, cheap shots, hatred, and calls to violence - Davis calls to mind an almost-impossible-to-remember time when our politicians made us want to hope for something better - made us want to be something better, not just for the sake of ourselves, but for the sake of one another.

The idea that we can treat one another with dignity, that we can care for people living in poverty, that we can partner with people from drastically different life backgrounds - those ideas might sound naive or impossible to 2025 American ears. But in a city struck by political violence, threats from federal officials, and narratives designed to pit residents against one another - what other choice do we have but to turn away from hatred and despair and toward hope? What other choice to do we have, in the shadow of Annunciation, and the remembrance and honor of Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel?

As I talked with Dr. Davis today - I felt a clear sense that Minneapolis was being offered a clear choice this mayoral election. A choice that could mean an off-ramp from the anger and division of the last several years, and a choice of a steady hand to bring our city together and protect our beloved neighborhoods and neighbors from an aggressive and violent federal administration.

What follows is a lightly-edited transcript of our conversation, and a little window into the candidate who I hope will be Minneapolis’ next Mayor:

The Rev. Dr. Dewayne Davis (Photo provided by candidate)

Interview Transcript (lightly edited)

Angela: You are not a native Minnesotan, but Minneapolis has become your home. How did you get here, and why have you stayed?

Dr. Davis: We came here in the Summer of 2013. I had gotten my Master’s in Divinity (from Wesley Theological Seminary), but I was convinced that I wasn’t going to do parish ministry. At the time I was the Domestic Policy Advisor for the Episcopal Church. During the Obama years, I was representing the Church at Congress and in the White House. We had gotten to work on the Affordable Care Act, on programs to fight poverty, on programs around LGBTQ rights. Metropolitan Community Church in Minneapolis had seen my profile and requested an interview. I was convinced that I wasn’t interested, but (my husband) Kareem convinced me to go and interview. Because I was thinking I wouldn’t be taking the position, it ended up being one of the best interviews I ever had.

And then we stayed … we stayed because I believe in Public Church. I don’t believe in a Church where salvation is between the four walls. I believe in a church where you get out in the community and out in the streets.

The one thing I found is that Minneapolis is open to the work.

We settled in North Minneapolis, and we saw the economic disparities and the racial disparities right away. But it was very clear to us as well that this was a well-meaning city. What both my husband and I found is that this is a place where you really have an opportunity to contribute.

You have to work hard at it. Some of the problems are really challenging. But what we have found is that if you want to get involved and try to help, people are willing to have you make your case. And they will roll up their sleeves and join you.

While serving MCC, Davis became deeply involved with Minneapolis community organizations, like North Point Clinic and the Minnesota Poor Peoples’ Campaign, a statewide group linked to the Rev. Dr. William Barber II’s National Poor Peoples’ Campaign, which draws its origin story from the May-June 1968 March on Washington organized by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., before his assassination in April of that year.

What I found in Minneapolis was that I could work with people. There were so many people who were interested in doing the work.

It’s ironic sometimes, because some of the problems are so stubborn and intractable in this city. And yet, I still think we have an opportunity to deal with them.

In essence, I’m hopeful all the time here - even in my frustrations. And that’s very different than some of the ways I felt when I was working in Washington (D.C.).

Angela: In a time of rising Christian Nationalism and right-wing radicalization, do you think Minneapolis offers an opportunity to showcase a different form of Christianity as public witness: not as a vehicle for hatred and division but instead as a mission centered on love?

Dr. Davis: The way that I personally show up - the way that most people knew me in this city when I started running for Mayor, they knew me as a Reverend or as a Minister. I am part of the progressive faith organizing that has been here in Minneapolis for a very long time. That makes us uniquely situated to counter white Christian Nationalism in a real way.

Even people who have said to me, “I really had trouble with you being a minister,” … someone who told me that said that they also saw that I had been there with people on the margins in every single way. That I was the first clergy person to speak out against bathroom bills in 2014. That I’m the only mayoral candidate endorsed by the Freedom from Religion Foundation.

(Note to readers: It might be surprising to learn that a Christian minister has been endorsed by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. But I can actually relate to Dr. Davis here. The FFRF is an important partner to all people of faith who are working against the terrorism and tyranny of white Christian Nationalism. The FFRF wants to work alongside religious groups to protect the freedom of religion in America, and to ensure that all Americans have the right to practice their religion (or lack thereof) in this country, without faith being coopted by an abusive and manipulative State Church. You can read more about this here).

(Being a pastor) opens up a lot of conversations. In this city, when we show up as a faith community, we show up big. I always tell people, I like to refer to us here in Minneapolis as a faith organizing community. We are multi faith … it’s what I call the kind of big tent, of organizing against poverty, against hate, and against any of the -isms that have been promulgated by the Trump Administration and the white Christian nationalists against all of us who do not adhere to their narrow form of faith.

Angela: How have you worked together with leaders of Muslim and Jewish - and other - faiths in Minneapolis?

Dr. Davis: That really has been a powerful experience for me. After George Floyd was murdered, working together with other religious leaders to show unity was the most hopeful response.

I knew that in that time the mayor and the city council were going to have to find their footing. We were also dealing with COVID, and this amount of grief and trauma was very difficult for our political leaders to get their hands around. As religious leaders, we have a different sense of how to help people deal with trauma. We know the language of healing and reconciliation.

In 2020, I had just started as Lead Minister of Plymouth Congregational Church (one of Minneapolis’ longest-standing congregations, first established in 1857).

A few years later, in 2023, I was in charge of the interfaith Thanksgiving service at Plymouth. You know how those liturgies usually go. But it was weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. I felt it was very important to take this opportunity to have an Interfaith Service that spoke to the dangers and seductions of inter-religious fighting and violence. We knew that we were in for a long and difficult conflict.

I invited (Temple Israel’s) Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman and Imam Hamdy El Sawaf of the Islamic Community Center of Minnesota to give a joint message. I wanted to make the case that as religious leaders we have to maintain our ability to work together and care for one another. I was so proud and relieved that my colleagues trusted me and came together in this way.

Angela: What is your reaction to some of the attacks from the Mayor Frey campaign on (Minnesota) Sen. Omar Fateh (fellow candidate for Mayor), especially suggesting that he will be a mayor who will be dangerous to the Minneapolis Jewish community?

I have articulated this, and it bothers me. The Frey camp has been very clear in trying to really highlight Sen. Fateh’s otherness, and they certainly have used his ethnicity and his religion. They’ll have plausible deniability of course, but there are dog whistles there. They are there.

(The Frey campaign) has really been putting their thumb on this (scary) idea of socialism. This is to me, this is the danger of our current political moment, especially in a city like ours. They’re really putting the focus on (Fateh) so they can have the starkest contrast as possible.

They’ve spent a lot of time ignoring me. They don’t want to call my name, because if they do, they worry that people will take notice.

But I have been telling both the Frey camp and the Fateh camp: this is a dangerous time to put your finger on the button of disunity. To suggest that someone that you disagree with politically is somehow an existential threat.

In my campaign, I’m not running to be the mayor of big business or the mayor of the socialists.

I’m running to be the mayor of Minneapolis.

Angela: Do you have any message in particular for the Jewish community in Minneapolis, who the Frey campaign has suggested that to rank anyone but Frey would mean danger for Minneapolis Jews?

I have a general response and a personal response.

My general response is that I don’t believe that any of the people who are running are existential threats to anybody. I believe of course that I have more experience than any of them. I think I would be a better mayor. But I think we need to take a beat before we consider anybody an existential threat. If I see anything antisemitic or Islamophobic, I will be the first one to speak out. When Fateh was attacked for his religion and ethnicity, and when Temple Israel was (vandalized with antisemitic graffiti) I spoke out right away.

Just because we have political differences, we shouldn’t fall into (calling each other existential threats). We should be clear-minded.

My personal response, and my message to the Jewish community in Minneapolis is that this has been the work that I have been doing my whole career. The kinds of -isms that have divided our communities and dominate American politics - we have to be steadfast and clear about not letting that happen to us.

I’ve been really clear about this since George Floyd was murdered, when I was named the co-chair of the community safety workgroup. Especially when we’ve been given the privilege of leadership. We need to make sure that this city represents all of us. And that no one feels left out.

Angela: Would you consider yourself an heir to the Civil Rights movement, and the values and aims that shaped Civil Rights leaders? I ask this because I am thinking about the ways that Black Christian leaders and white Jewish leaders worked together on Civil Rights in really powerful ways, and the ways that Christian Nationalists are trying to tear down that long-standing alliance and partnership.

Dr. Davis: Yes. Absolutely. I am an heir to that movement and I am shaped by it. And of course I appreciate the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and everything he worked for and said.

And also I need to specify. I’m from Mississippi. So there are some unique and specific people who have shaped my sense of mission and ministry.

Fannie Lou Hamer and Unita Blackwell.

These were women who came from the ground up … They understood that organizing and protesting and challenging systems required people to do it from all walks of life. These were women who did not have education. They were sharecroppers. And their mark on the world and the struggle for Black freedom was so important.

I don’t want to spiritualize the movement for freedom. Sometimes that’s what we end up doing in church language. Fannie Lou Hamer and Unita Blackwell: their faith got operationalized in the face of violence and danger.

That’s the kind of faith I want people to have. A faith that shows up in the courage and stubborn tenacity in the fight for freedom.

Angela: This past summer we witnessed devastating political violence in Minnesota, with the assassinations of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the attempted assassinations of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. How did you decide to sacrifice your own safety and security to run for Mayor at such a time as this, especially as a Black man and a gay man?

Dr. Davis: Before Trump was reelected last year, and before the violence we witnessed in Minneapolis this past summer, we had started having conversations with the Downtown Clergy group about what this is going to be. We were talking about how to address the residents of Minneapolis about political violence, because we were really concerned.

It’s a given that when a nation goes into autocracy, political violence becomes a part of the territory.

When we started talking about whether I was going to (run for Mayor), that was the big question from my family and friends: safety. We actually had a big family and friends Zoom call, and people were worried.

First we did technical assurance, we had a security team come in and look at our house and do the things we need to do to protect ourselves.

The one thing I really wanted to do was to assure my mother, who was alive at the time, that I would be safe.

I know the danger here. But that’s also why I feel so strongly about doing it.

I would not be where I am today if my parents did not have the faith and courage they had to weather Jim Crow Mississippi.

(Davis, 54, is the 15th child of former Mississippi sharecroppers, his father William Birkett Davis, and his mother, Delcia Davis).

My parents built a house of love and laughter. I did not realize until years later the amount of fear they experienced. I grew up about 40 miles from where Emmett Till was killed. The threat of racial violence was always around them. And yet, despite everything they endured, they stayed in Mississippi even when many of their friends and family left: working and striving.

What I said to my family and friends is that:

We are in a mission moment where our democracy is being attacked. I just feel like I have to give everything that I have, to make sure that I fight for the democracy that we have.

Because my parents went through all of that, I cannot luxuriate in the privilege that they afforded me, without stepping up to make sure that - if this is the new battle, I’ve gotta be worthy of the privilege that they gave me.

I also feel that way about the LGBTQ community that came before me. In the 90s I was going around Congress telling members that I was gay. And I began to realize just how many LGBTQ people lost their jobs just a few years before that. They died in great numbers during the worst years of the AIDs epidemic. And still they were brave enough to tell people who they were.

I owe these people so much.

Angela: You mentioned that your mother was alive before you started your campaign. Did she die recently? What was some of the last wisdom she left you with?

She died in June. She was 97 years old. I think that she was both impressed by me, and she also thought I was very strange.

My parents created a world for me that they could have only imagined.

My mother thought I was the smartest person who ever lived. It was a way that she could explain to herself who I was. This past Spring she said to me:

“You always do well. You will do well. I know that.”

For my mom, as long as I was a minister - that was the only thing she really cared about!

Angela: Within the Black Christian community and certainly in Mississippi, there is a wide range of views around LGBTQ acceptance. What was that experience like of coming out to your parents?

Dr. Davis: That was a very challenging time in our relationship together. It was very difficult for them at first. I came out right after college, and for about two years, we were very estranged. I know it was hard for my parents, and I actually said: it’s OK if you need to let me go. I’ll be OK.

Then after about two years, my mother called me. She said:

“We can’t have it like this. You are our son. We love you, and we are going to try and understand.”

They really embraced me and Kareem. And it shaped how the rest of the family behaved. Because of (my parents’) graciousness, and their willingness to go along on this journey, we had a real reconciliation.

Angela: I wanted to ask you about that because I think you have such a wide range of experiences that help you to understand people from a wide variety of viewpoints, and you approach your leadership therefore with such a sense of grace.

Dr. Davis: I can’t caution people about this enough, Angela. I speak to this among Black communities, too, when it comes to our immigrant communities. We cannot separate our struggles out from others’ struggles. It can easily turn on you before you know it.

We have to be careful to understand, even when there is a disagreement, that if there is something you can turn to and point to with hatred and fear, that can easily turn on you before you know it. That is a very short-term strategy that could have some real long-term effects.

In the 90s I used to warn Republicans about this. I knew that they didn’t really believe some of the things they were saying about abortion rights, LGBTQ people: they thought they could always control that (far-right) segment of their voters. Then Donald Trump comes on the scene and steals that coalition away.

Angela: I think a lot of people in Minneapolis are seeing the fear and danger incited by ICE presence in Portland and Chicago right now, and they’re concerned. What will you do to protect Minneapolis from the presence of federal groups like ICE or other states’ National Guard troops being called into our city?

Dr. Davis: It starts with that first big thing that happened. I went out to Lake and Bloomington on June 3 … I wanted to see what was going on, so that I could talk to people about what happened - to be a witness.

I bring that same sense as mayor. Certainly, we have a separation ordinance (a city policy that prevents city employees, including police, from enforcing federal civil immigration laws or asking about residents’ immigration status). Our state auditor says we need to make that separation ordinance more specific.

Our police need to know exactly what to do to show up.

I also see what Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Johnson are doing in Chicago. They are speaking directly to people in Chicago.

As Mayor, I would speak directly to the residents of Minneapolis. I would speak about what your rights are. I would talk with and to our immigrant communities. It’s not only about the technical things but also about working with Unidos and all of the organizers who are really doing that work.

(Pritzker and Johnson) are giving people something that they can do. It’s this leadership presence of saying that we’re in this together and you’re a part of it.

And I would remind people over and over again - not to normalize what is happening.

All of this is unconstitutional. Everything that the administration is doing is extrajudicial. It is wrong. Let’s not debate the finer points. We’ll respond, and we’ll organize the city, and we’ll bring to bear all of our resources.

This is wrong. It is unconstitutional.

Angela: You mentioned Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Are there other political leaders who you are looking to in this moment for inspiration?

Dr. Davis: I will have to say first the Rev. William Barber II. He has been consistent. Before any of this started, before the Trump administration even, he has been talking about: how do we create a democracy and an economy that brings people into it? Especially people who are living in poverty.

The Poor Peoples’ Campaign is one of the movements that has been preparing me for leadership in this moment. That kind of powerful voice and witness has shown me the way.

And I will also say, beyond even national leaders, I am looking to (MN Attorney General) Keith Ellison. He has been fighting so hard. He has been vocal. He has been active. He has been aggressive in resisting this administration in a way that goes beyond what Democrats on the national scale are doing.

Angela: One thing that has been neat to witness this campaign is seeing you and Fateh and Jazz Hampton campaign together at times to rank all three of you. But I have to ask - why should Minneapolis voters rank you first?

I think I have more experience than any of them, with the exception of the incumbent Mayor who has been in that office. But I have in general more experience and institutional experience in government than any of them.

My leadership experience and style is the kind that we need right now. What I mean by that is that my leadership is about doing the possible. We find our way forward at all times. Whether it’s in Congress or in church settings, I have been working to bring people together across differences.

We need a leader who works cross-jurisdictionally across differences. No matter what happens, we bring the best idea forward to do the next best thing, and I think I’m uniquely situated to do that.

When I look at the others, I get a sense that, I don’t know if they have the leadership or the temperament to make sure that they stand up and lead with a steady hand in very challenging and dangerous times.

I don’t think (Frey) is willing to expend the political capital he needs to do to keep Minneapolis safe. That’s my big concern.

A huge thank-you to the Rev. Dr. DeWayne Davis for taking time out of his busy campaign schedule - one week before the election! - to talk with me. I truly enjoyed hearing more of his story, and I felt moved by the possibility to hope again even in the oft-despairing realm of American politics.

I’m so grateful that folks like Dr. Davis - and many other politicians in America - are willing to risk their own personal safety to step out and run for political office at this moment. It’s just not true that all of them are in it for personal gain, or that all of them are corrupt. And I think my conversation with Dr. Davis brings that point to bear.

If you’re a Minneapolis resident, Election Day is next Tuesday, Nov. 4! Don’t forget to learn how to use ranked-choice voting. (And if you’re not a Minneapolis resident, consider learning about ranked-choice voting options for your community!) Early voting has already begun in Minneapolis. Click here to find an early voting location and here to find your Election Day polling location.

Photo provided by the Rev. Dr. DeWayne Davis

P.S. …

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