Jacob Frey education and career path: The former athlete now racing towards a third term as Minneapolis mayor

As votes continue to be tallied in Minneapolis, Mayor Jacob Frey is holding a narrow lead over challenger Omar Fateh in a crowded field of fifteen candidates. The race, which has now moved to a second round of counting under the city’s ranked-choice voting system, could determine whether Frey secures a third term as mayor, and continues a political career.

On Tuesday night, Frey, a mainstream Democrat seeking re-election, addressed supporters with cautious optimism. While refraining from declaring victory, he emphasised that his campaign was “well in the lead” and confident about the city’s direction. His rival, Fateh, a state senator and democratic socialist, told his own supporters the race remained “too close to call,” reflecting the close ideological contest shaping Minneapolis’s leadership, the Associated Press reports.But beyond the ballot, Frey’s story traces an uncommon path, from the college track to the corridors of city hall.

From the track to the city hall

Long before entering city politics, Jacob Frey was a distance runner. Born in Arlington County, Virginia, and raised in Oakton, he was the son of professional modern ballet dancers. His mother’s Russian-Jewish heritage and his father’s later conversion to Judaism shaped a multicultural household that valued both discipline and self-expression.

Frey’s academic and athletic promise earned him a track and field scholarship to the College of William & Mary, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 2004. He ran cross-country at the collegiate level, represented his team at the 2002 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Cross Country Championships, and won the Colonial Athletic Association’s 5,000-metre title the same year.After college, Frey pursued professional running, signing a contract with a shoe company and competing across the United States.

His athletic career culminated in representing Team USA at the 2007 Pan American Games marathon, where he placed fourth, a result that, in many ways, set the tone for his later persistence in public life.

Law, leadership, and the move to Minneapolis

Frey earned his law degree cum laude from Villanova University, where he also delivered his class’s commencement address. His legal focus on employment discrimination and civil rights drew him to Minneapolis in 2009, where he joined the firm Faegre & Benson before later working with Halunen & Associates.In Minneapolis, Frey combined community engagement with advocacy. In 2012, he founded the Big Gay Race, a five-kilometre charity run supporting marriage equality through the group Minnesotans United for All Families. The initiative blended two themes central to his identity: athleticism and inclusion.

The political ascent

Frey’s first attempt at elected office came in 2011, when he ran for a vacant state senate seat. Though unsuccessful, it introduced him to the city’s political networks and helped refine his campaign message.

Two years later, in 2013, he successfully contested the Minneapolis City Council seat for Ward 3, running on a platform that prioritised affordable housing, small business growth, climate action, and responsive governance.Endorsed by the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) and more than forty public figures and organisations, Frey won decisively with over 60% of the vote. His single term on the City Council, from 2014 to 2018, set the foundation for his citywide profile.In 2017, Frey was elected mayor of Minneapolis and re-elected in 2021, both times navigating a city grappling with issues of policing, homelessness, and urban inequality. His administration’s efforts at reform gained national attention following the 2020 protests after George Floyd’s death, an event that made Minneapolis both a focal point of civil rights discourse and a testing ground for urban policy.

The race ahead

Now, as the city awaits the outcome of its ranked-choice count, a system that reallocates second- and third-choice votes until a candidate passes the majority threshold, Frey stands once again in a contest that rewards stamina as much as strategy. In 2021, he secured victory only after the second round of counting.The long-distance runner’s mindset of pacing through pressure, continues to define his tenure as Minneapolis mayor and may yet carry him across another electoral finish line.