Jacob Frey

Frey has been married to Sarah Clarke since 2016. They have two daughters, Frida, born in 2020, and Estelle, born in July 2025. Clarke is a lobbyist who represents businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations before the Minnesota legislature and executive branch agencies.

Frey follows Reform Judaism and attends Temple Israel, a Reform synagogue in Minneapolis, with Clarke, who converted to Judaism. His parents, Christopher and Jamie Frey, were professional modern ballet dancers, and Frey grew up in Oakton, Virginia, in a Jewish family.

Frey attended the College of William & Mary on a track and field scholarship, where he competed as a distance runner. He won the 2002 Colonial Athletic Association 5,000-meter title and competed in the 2002 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. After college, he received a contract to run professionally.

Frey represented Team USA in the marathon at the 2007 Pan American Games, finishing fourth with a personal-best time of 2:16:44. He also competed in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials marathon. While attending Villanova University School of Law, he came to Minneapolis to run the Twin Cities Marathon and later chose the city as his home.

After graduating cum laude from Villanova, Frey worked as an employment discrimination and civil rights lawyer at Faegre & Benson and later at Halunen & Associates. His community organizing included helping tenants facing homelessness in North Minneapolis. In 2012, Minneapolis gave him its inaugural Martin Luther King Jr. Award for civil rights work.

In 2012, Frey founded and organized the first Big Gay Race, a 5K charity event supporting Minnesotans United for All Families and its campaign for marriage equality. He entered electoral politics through a 2011 special election for a Minnesota Senate seat, placing fifth in the DFL primary.

Frey won election to the Minneapolis City Council from the Third Ward in 2013, defeating incumbent Diane Hofstede with more than 60 percent of the vote. He took office in January 2014 and focused on constituent services, residential growth, small and local businesses, affordable housing, and climate change.

Frey announced his mayoral campaign in January 2017 and won the election later that year. His victory made him Minneapolis's second Jewish mayor. He was reelected in 2021 with 56.2 percent of the final ranked-choice vote and won a third term in 2025 after ranked-choice tabulation.

Affordable housing, community-police relations, climate action, inclusive economic growth, and government efficiency have been central themes of Frey's mayoral agenda. His first mayoral budget included a major expansion of affordable-housing investment, and he launched Stable Homes Stable Schools with Minneapolis Public Schools, Hennepin County, the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, and the YMCA of the North. The program provides housing assistance to families with children in Minneapolis public schools who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Frey supported the Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which included zoning changes allowing more housing types and greater density near transit corridors. He has opposed rent control, particularly for new construction. His administration also advanced the Climate Legacy Initiative, renewable energy for city-owned buildings, green jobs, tree planting, and expanded electric and rapid transit efforts.

During the 2020 protests following George Floyd's murder, Frey supported firing the four officers involved and called for criminal charges against Derek Chauvin. He later backed changes to Minneapolis Police Department policies, including restrictions on chokeholds and neck restraints, intervention requirements for officers who witness excessive force, and additional authorization for crowd-control weapons. Frey opposed abolishing the police department and has continued to support increased police funding.

In 2021, Minneapolis voters approved a new strong-mayor system that gave the mayor direct control over 11 city departments and changed the City Council's role from governing to legislating. Frey campaigned for the change and became the first mayor to serve under the new structure. His administration has also designated Minneapolis as a safe haven for reproductive rights and maintained the city's sanctuary-city status for undocumented immigrants.