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Elliott Payne
2022 - Present
2026
3
Elliott Payne is a member of the Minneapolis City Council in Minnesota, representing Ward 1. He assumed office on January 3, 2022. His current term ends on January 5, 2026.
Payne (Democratic Party) is running for re-election to the Minneapolis City Council to represent Ward 1 in Minnesota. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025.[source]
Elections in Minneapolis are officially nonpartisan, but the Minneapolis City Charter allows mayoral and city council candidates to choose a party label to appear below their name on the official ballot. Ballotpedia includes candidates' party or principle to best reflect what voters will see on their ballot.[1]
Biography
Elliott Payne was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota in 2004 and a graduate degree from the same university in 2010.[2]
Elections
2025
See also: City elections in Minneapolis, Minnesota (2025)
General election
The general election will occur on November 4, 2025.
General election for Minneapolis City Council Ward 1
Incumbent Elliott Payne, Brian Strahan, and Edwin Fruit are running in the general election for Minneapolis City Council Ward 1 on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
 | Elliott Payne (D) | |
| Brian Strahan (D) | ||
| Edwin Fruit (Socialist Workers Party) | ||
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 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2023
See also: City elections in Minneapolis, Minnesota (2023)
General election
General election for Minneapolis City Council Ward 1
The ranked-choice voting election was won by Elliott Payne in round 1 .
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Total votes: 4,478 |
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
Endorsements
Payne received the following endorsements.
2021
See also: City elections in Minneapolis, Minnesota (2021)
General election
General election for Minneapolis City Council Ward 1
The ranked-choice voting election was won by Elliott Payne in round 2 . The results of Round are displayed below. To see the results of other rounds, use the dropdown menu above to select a round and the table will update.
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Total votes: 11,438 |
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
Campaign themes
2025
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
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2023
Elliott Payne did not complete Ballotpedia's 2023 Candidate Connection survey.
2021
Elliott Payne completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Payne's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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In 2005, just out of college, my wife Lindsay and I made our first home in Northeast Minneapolis, our home ever since. As the years went by, I followed my interests into a career in advertising, experience design, and human-centered innovation. By 2014, I should have felt like a success. But that year Michael Brown was murdered in Ferguson, Eric Garner was murdered in New York, and I realized that my parents’ struggle for racial justice would always be with me. I had to be a part of the the struggle that brought my parents together.
That was my path into politics, and I’m just getting started.
The status quo has failed the people of our city, and the whole world knows it. In 2021, in Minneapolis, change cannot wait.
The people of Ward 1 deserve leadership as creative, dynamic, and welcoming as the neighborhoods we call home.
- By inviting all of Ward 1 into the deliberative process at City Hall, we can create a better future for the Eastside and the city.
I began the work of seeking these changes while working in the Office of Performance and Innovation at city hall. Last year, I lead a series of community workshops where we collectively brought forward a set of recommendations that passed in the Safety for All budget amendment. This included the creation of a mental health response capability.
This work is the start of the roadmap towards transformation. I don’t want to oversimplify this work, but for brevity I will list out a summary of the roadmap:
1. We do a historical review of all calls for service to identify opportunities for targeted responses (issues such as mental health, chemical dependency, homelessness, domestic abuse, etc.)
2. We invest in targeted responses to these specific issues (starting with the mental health response team my office recommended)
3. We measure the effectiveness of these targeted responses and use the pilots to refine the response protocols and capacity needed
4. We fully fund the responses that deliver the safer community we aspire to
Each step along the way is data driven and done in collaboration with the community.
SPACE FOR EVERYONE. Ward 1 is a mixed-income, mixed-use, multi-generational and multicultural community of strong neighborhoods and good neighbors. Housing and zoning policies should make sure everyone who wants to be our neighbor can live a good life here.
COMPLETE NEIGHBORHOODS. We deserve city infrastructure that serves all of us — not just the most privileged. The urgent structural challenges of our time require a bigger vision of what municipal government can do, and a willingness to fight for the city services and supports it takes to keep our communities strong.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Note: Community Questions were submitted by the public and chosen for inclusion by a volunteer advisory board. The chosen questions were modified by staff to adhere to Ballotpedia’s neutrality standards. To learn more about Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection Expansion Project, click here.
Campaign website
- Click here to view an archived version of Payne's campaign website.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
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Candidate Minneapolis City Council Ward 1 |
Officeholder Minneapolis City Council Ward 1 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ City of Minneapolis, "Common questions about filing for office," accessed September 10, 2025
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 4, 2021
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Kevin Reich |
Minneapolis City Council Ward 1 2022-Present |
Succeeded by - |
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