Lee Samelson
Posted by on October 24, 2025

As we have done for each Minneapolis city election cycle starting in 2013, Community Power has create opportunities for those who would represent us in City Hall to share their perspectives, experience, and insights on local energy democracy and climate justice through both written questionnaires and live Q & A forums.

Our Voter Guide below includes user-friendly and convenient time-specific links to candidate forum recordings (and questionnaires) on the issues of local climate justice and environmental sustainability. It features the candidates unfiltered and in their own words.

  • Meetings: Over several months in 2025, Community Power staff have met with 30 candidates for city council and mayor, 24 who are still running and on the ballot. During these informal meetings, we shared the history of energy democracy in Minneapolis and the basics of addressing climate justice on the local level so that as many coming into City Hall as possible would have the same baseline knowledge.    
  • Questionnaire: We have also received a total of 20 responses to our 2025 questionnaire which are linked below. As a 501c3 organization we do not and cannot endorse any one in any race. So the campaigns who submitted a response do it only as a convenient vehicle for expressing their views to voters.
  • Q & A Forums: Community Power also co-sponsored 5 candidate forums organized by the Minneapolis League of Women Voters in Wards 1, 7, 9, 11 & 12 (which is abbreviated as LWV from here on). We also helped organize and co-sponsored the June 25th Native Mayoral forum. 

    

Photos of attendees to LWV forums in Wards 7, 1 and 12 (from left to right). 

Additional Notes: 

  • The Ordering of Candidates: In races where there is an incumbent, the incumbent is listed first and marked with (i) next to their name. The remaining candidates are listed in alphabetical order by last name. 
  • Ranked Choice Voting: Voters in Minneapolis get more than one choice and will be able to rank up to 3 choices on their ballot for any of the offices below. Rest assured that ranking anyone else as your 2nd and/or 3rd choice will not harm the chances of your 1st choice in any way. 
  • Ward Maps: Click on the Ward Maps below to an expanded PDF map to see which City Council race you will be voting in.

 

***** Read the Mayoral Candidates' Responses to our Community Power Candidate Questionnaire *****

***** Watch the Mayoral Candidates who attended our June 25th forum give responses to Energy, Climate and Environment related questions at multiple live Q & A Forums *****

The following 6 mayoral candidates (listed in Alphabetical order by last name) participated in the June 25th Native Mayoral Forum that Community Power cohosted and helped organize.

At 14 minutes into this video of the forum, a question on Energy, Climate & Environment was asked. 

References:

***** Exclusive Partial Mayoral Candidate Forum Recording not found anywhere else *****

Candidates Davis, Fateh and Hampton answered a question on how they will respond to the federal administration on immigration and climate specifically at an October 4th Longfellow Neighborhood forum. These were the only 3 candidates invited to that particular forum. 

***** The remaining mayoral candidates (listed in Alphabetical order by last name) *****   

Hear the full question on Access to Energy Efficiency for renters and multifamily residents at the LWV Mayoral forum on September 9th.  

***** 2025 City Council Q & A Forum Recordings *****

 

Ward 1

Read Ward 1 Candidates' Responses to our Community Power Candidate Questionnaire: 

Watch the Ward 1 Candidates give responses to Energy, Climate and Environment related questions at live Q & A forums: 

Hear the full question on home weatherization and utility bill affordability at Ward 1 LWV Forum on September 25th.

Ward 2

Read Ward 2 Candidates' Responses to our Community Power Candidate Questionnaire: 

Watch the Ward 2 Candidates give responses to Energy, Climate and Environment related questions at live Q & A forums:

References: 

Hear the full question on access to energy efficiency for renters and multifamily residents and the full question on transportation at LWV Forum on October 14th. 

Ward 3

Read Ward 3 Candidates' Responses to our Community Power Candidate Questionnaire: 

Watch the Ward 3 Candidates give responses to Energy, Climate and Environment related questions at live Q & A forums:

References: 

Hear the full question on reaching zero waste by 2050 to close the HERC incinerator, immediately followed by a question on access to energy efficiency for renters and multifamily residents at the Ward 3 LWV Forum on September 18th. 

* In the interest of transparency, Marcus is one of our board members, a resident of Ward 3, and has chosen to run for the seat.

Ward 4

Read Ward 4 Candidates' Responses to our Community Power Candidate Questionnaire:

Watch the Ward 4 Candidates give responses to Energy, Climate and Environment related questions at live Q & A forums:

References: 

Hear the full question on addressing pollution from the Owens Corning Roofing Plant at the Ward 4 LWV Forum on September 17th. 

 

Ward 5

Read Ward 5 Candidates' Responses to our Community Power Candidate Questionnaire:

 

Watch the Ward 5 Candidates give responses to Energy, Climate and Environment related questions at live Q & A forums:

References: 

Hear the full question on the downtown HERC incinerator and Zero Waste at the Black Political Action Ward 5 forum on March 25th. 

Hear the full question on the scale of and source of dedicated funding to support the Minneapolis Climate Equity Plan Implementation at the Ward 5 LWV forum on September 3rd.

 

Ward 6

Watch the Ward 6 Candidates give responses to Energy, Climate and Environment related questions at live Q & A forums:

References: 

Hear the full question on making affordable, fresh food available to all residents and municipal grocery stores at the Ward 6 LWV Forum on September 11th. 

 

Ward 7

Read Ward 7 Candidates' Responses to our Community Power Candidate Questionnaire: 

Watch the Ward 7 Candidates give responses to Energy, Climate and Environment related questions at live Q & A forums:

References: 

 

Ward 8

Read Ward 8 Candidates' Responses to our Community Power Candidate Questionnaire:

Watch the Ward 8 Candidates give responses to Energy, Climate and Environment related questions at live Q & A forums:

References: 

 

Ward 9

Read the Ward 9 Candidates' Responses to our Community Power Candidate Questionnaire:

Watch the Ward 9 Candidates give responses to Energy, Climate and Environment related questions at live Q & A forums:

References: 

Watch the Ward 9 candidates answer a question on their vision for the Roof Depot site in East Phillips and a question on addressing environmental and climate justice at the LWV Forum on October 6th.  

 

Ward 10

Read Ward 10 Candidates' Responses to our Community Power Candidate Questionnaire: 

Watch the Ward 10 Candidates give responses to Energy, Climate and Environment related questions at live Q & A forums:

References: 

Ward 11

Read Ward 11 Candidates' Responses to our Community Power Candidate Questionnaire: 

Watch the Ward 11 Candidates give responses to Energy, Climate and Environment related questions at live Q & A forums:

References: 

Hear the full question on access to energy efficiency for renters and multifamily residents at the Ward 11 LWV forum on September 30th.  

Ward 12

Read Ward 12 Candidates' Responses to our Community Power Candidate Questionnaire:

Watch the Ward 12 Candidates give responses to Energy, Climate and Environment related questions at live Q & A forums:

References:

Hear the full question about Zero Waste and the Climate Equity Plan at the Ward 12 LWV Forum on October 9th.

 

Ward 13

Read Ward 13 Candidates' Responses to our Community Power Candidate Questionnaire:

Watch the Ward 13 Candidates give responses to Energy, Climate and Environment related questions at live Q & A forums:

References:

Hear the full question on how to meet the city's goal of 70% clean energy by 2030 at the Ward 13 LWV Forum on October 22nd.

 

For a Background on Community Power's Candidate Forums see our City Electeds Page. In addition, You can see a questionnaire archive and video archive from responses and forums from ALL candidates for previous years (not just those who were elected). 

Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board Candidates

While Community Power did not make a separate questionnaire more applicable for the Park & Recreation Board offices, we do acknowledge that environmental and ecological sustainability is a key topic that commissioners will address. There was an abundance of environmental-related questions asked at 2 forums for Park Board candidates. Since these were held very late in the campaign season, we thought we'd include video links to them in this voter guide.   

Any Minneapolis Voters will get to vote elect 3 Citywide At- Large Park Board Commissioners and one commissioner from each of the 6 districts (see map here).   

Environmental-Related Questions from the Oct 29th LWV "Grand Rounds" 3-part Park Board forum (covering every contested race): 

 

 

Exclusive Content ! - Recordings of the October 23rd Parks and Power forum 

 



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