Jacob Frey Bio
Jacob Lawrence Frey (born July 23, 1981) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the 48th mayor of Minneapolis since 2018. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), he previously represented Ward 3 on the Minneapolis City Council from 2014 to 2018. Before entering elected office, Frey practiced employment-discrimination and civil-rights law and competed as a professional marathoner. He was elected mayor in 2017 and reelected in 2021 and again in 2025.
Early Life and Background
Jacob Lawrence Frey was born on July 23, 1981, in Arlington County, Virginia, and grew up in the nearby suburb of Oakton, a community in Northern Virginia close to Washington, D.C. He was raised in a Jewish family by his parents, Christopher Frey and Jamie Frey (née Goldstein), who were both professional modern ballet dancers. His mother is of Russian Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, and his father converted to Judaism. The family environment in Northern Virginia shaped his early years and exposed him to both the arts and the rhythms of public life in the nation’s capital region.
Frey attended Oakton High School, where he distinguished himself as a distance runner. He went on to compete on the track and field team at the College of William & Mary on an athletic scholarship, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2004. At William & Mary, he became a standout cross-country runner, earning all-Colonial Athletic Association honors and competing at the 2002 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. He also won the 2002 CAA 5,000-meter title in track, establishing a foundation in athletics that would influence his early professional path.
Path to US Politics
After graduating from college, Frey signed a contract with a shoe company to run professionally. He competed in several marathons across the country and represented Team USA in the 2007 Pan American Games marathon, where he finished in fourth place with a personal-best time of 2:16:44. In 2008, he competed in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, posting a time of 2:18.19. These experiences built his discipline and public profile before he pivoted to law and public service.
Frey earned his law degree cum laude from the Villanova University School of Law and delivered his graduating class’s commencement speech. In 2009, he moved to Minneapolis and joined the law firm Faegre & Benson, later moving to Halunen & Associates, where he practiced employment-discrimination and civil-rights law. In late 2011, he entered a special election for an open Minnesota state senate seat, finishing fifth in the Democratic–Farmer–Labor primary. In 2012, he founded and organized the first Big Gay Race, a 5K charity race that raised money for Minnesotans United for All Families, supporting marriage equality.
Jacob Frey Career
Early Career (2013–2017)
In 2013, Jacob Frey ran for the Minneapolis City Council to represent Ward 3, securing the DFL endorsement along with support from more than 40 elected officials and organizations. His platform emphasized better constituent services, residential development, support for small and local businesses, full funding of affordable housing, and action on climate change. He defeated incumbent Diane Hofstede with more than 60 percent of the vote and took office on January 2, 2014, serving one term on the council.
As a council member, Frey chaired the Elections Committee and led the effort to pass an ordinance requiring landlords to provide tenants with voter registration information, which served as a national model. He also expanded early voting access in Minneapolis ahead of the 2016 election, increasing early voting sites from one to five. In 2016, he authored an ordinance requiring polluters to pay fees based on the amount of pollution they produced, with the revenue supporting green business improvements.
Mayoral Breakthrough (2017–2021)
Jacob Frey announced his candidacy for mayor of Minneapolis in January 2017, campaigning on a platform of increasing support for affordable housing and improving police-community relations. He won the 2017 election, becoming Minneapolis’s second Jewish mayor and its second-youngest after Al Hofstede, who was 34 when elected in 1973. His first budget as mayor, in 2018, tripled the city’s previous spending on affordable housing, allocating $40 million to the cause. That year, the Minneapolis City Council approved the Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan, ending single-family home zoning and allowing three-family homes in residential neighborhoods.
In 2019, Frey launched the Stable Homes Stable Schools pilot program, a partnership between the city, Minneapolis Public Schools, Hennepin County, the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, and YMCA of the North, which provides housing assistance to families experiencing or at risk of homelessness. By 2025, the program had served over 6,600 children and more than 2,300 families. Frey was reelected with 56.2 percent of the vote in 2021, defeating challenger Kate Knuth in the final round of ranked-choice voting, becoming the first mayor to serve under the city’s new strong mayor system, which gave the mayor direct control over 11 city departments.
Third Term Era (2021–Present)
Since the strong mayor system was implemented, Jacob Frey has issued eight executive orders, the first establishing Minneapolis as a safe haven for reproductive rights and healthcare after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. In 2024, he set a city record for vetoes issued in a year, with eight vetoes and four sustained. In January 2025, Frey announced his intention to run for a third term, saying it would be his last mayoral campaign. After a contested DFL endorsing convention in July 2025, the state party revoked the endorsement of state senator Omar Fateh and placed the Minneapolis DFL on two years’ probation.
On November 4, 2025, Jacob Frey was elected to a third term, securing 50.03 percent of the vote after two rounds of ranked-choice tabulation, ahead of Omar Fateh’s 44.37 percent. In December 2025, he signed an executive order banning federal officials from using city property for staging areas in response to expanded ICE operations. In January 2026, he dismissed a Department of Homeland Security claim that the shooting of a woman by an ICE agent was done in self-defense, urging federal agents to leave Minneapolis and criticizing a second ICE-involved shooting on January 14.
Notable Events and Milestones
On May 27, 2020, after the start of protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd, Jacob Frey backed the firing of the four police officers involved and called for criminal charges against Derek Chauvin. He led reforms to the Minneapolis Police Department in 2018 and 2019, including banning warrior training and tightening body camera compliance. His administration also championed the Minneapolis 2040 plan, ended single-family zoning, banned no-knock warrants, signed an executive order making entheogenic plant enforcement the lowest priority, and in 2022 vetoed a City Council suspension of the Roof Depot demolition project.
Jacob Frey Family
Family Background and Public Service Lineage
Jacob Frey was raised in a Jewish household by his parents, Christopher and Jamie (née Goldstein) Frey, both of whom were professional modern ballet dancers. His mother is of Russian Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, and his father converted to Judaism. In November 2025, Frey revealed that his parents had become Minneapolis residents, joining him in the city where he has built his political career. His upbringing in Northern Virginia and his parents’ careers in the arts shaped his early perspective and work ethic before he entered public service.
Personal Life
Jacob Frey married his first wife, world-class long-distance runner Michelle Lilienthal, in 2009, and the couple divorced in 2014. In 2016, he married his second wife, Sarah Clarke, a lobbyist for Hylden Advocacy & Law who represents businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations at the Minnesota legislature and executive branch agencies. The couple had their first child in 2020 and their second child in July 2025. Frey follows Reform Judaism and attends Temple Israel in Minneapolis with Clarke, a convert to Judaism.