While the nation watched the midterm elections for control of Congress, voters in Minnesota’s Twin Cities suburbs were deciding who would run their own city halls, and the results in two neighboring cities told a story of continuity, history, and change. In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota’s sixth-largest city, Mayor Hollies Winston won re-election by more than 11 percentage points, securing a second term as the city’s first Black mayor. In Brooklyn Center, next door, City Council member Teneshia Kragness won a decisive victory with more than 64 percent of the vote, ensuring that Black leadership will continue in the mayor’s office even as the election changes the racial composition of the City Council. The two races, held on the same night as the national midterms, drew far less attention than the contests for Congress, but for the people who live in those cities, the results will shape decisions on housing, public safety, property taxes, and economic development for the next four years.
Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center are part of the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis, communities that have changed rapidly in recent decades and have become among the most diverse cities in Minnesota. Their elections are officially nonpartisan, but they are fought over the same issues that dominate politics everywhere: the cost of housing, the quality of public services, the safety of neighborhoods, and the direction of development. The 2026 results suggest that voters in both cities are broadly satisfied with the direction of their local governments, and that they want the leaders who have been in charge to keep going, with some new faces alongside them.
The results are unofficial, as all Minnesota municipal results are on election night, and they will be certified in the days that follow. But the margins were wide enough that the outcomes are not in doubt, and the winners have already begun to talk about what comes next.
Winston wins a second term in Brooklyn Park
In Brooklyn Park, the crowd was chanting the mayor’s title before he could deliver his victory speech. At Plush Restaurant and Lounge on Tuesday night, supporters celebrated as Hollies Winston prepared to address them after winning a second term as mayor of Minnesota’s sixth-largest city. Winston defeated City Council member Shelle Page with 16,353 votes, or 55.26 percent, to Page’s 13,014 votes, or 43.97 percent, according to unofficial election results. The margin was 3,339 votes, or 11.29 percentage points.
The victory secured another term for the man who made history in 2022 when Brooklyn Park elected its first Black mayor. Winston was first elected in a special election that year, then secured a full term later in 2022, and was sworn in on January 9, 2023. His re-election campaign asked voters to judge his record on the issues that have defined his time in office: housing, economic development, public safety, and the city’s future. The result suggests that a majority of voters liked what they saw, and that they preferred his leadership to the alternative offered by Page, a sitting council member who argued for a change in direction.
The mayoral and council campaigns unfolded amid debates over housing, economic development, public safety, and the city’s future, and Winston delivered what local reporting described as a forceful victory speech, in which he made clear that he intends to continue the work he started. At the same Election Night gathering, state Representative Huldah Momanyi-Hiltsley, a Kenyan-born Democrat representing House District 38A, celebrated winning a second term in the Minnesota House, a reminder that the local and state elections are connected, and that the same voters who chose the mayor also chose their representative in St. Paul.
A changing council in Brooklyn Park
The mayoral race was not the only contest on the Brooklyn Park ballot, and the council results brought their own history. Bernice David-Cooper won the West District seat on the Brooklyn Park City Council, becoming the first Liberian woman elected to the council. David-Cooper defeated former Council member Tonja West-Hafner by 229 votes, receiving 3,583 votes, or 51.21 percent, compared with West-Hafner’s 3,354 votes, or 47.93 percent, according to unofficial results from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office. She becomes the second Liberian to serve on the City Council, following Wynfred Russell, who was sworn into office in 2019 as Brooklyn Park’s first Black council member.
David-Cooper was part of a slate of candidates aligned with Winston that also included incumbent Council members Christian Eriksen and Nichole Klonowski, both of whom won their races. The alignment matters because a mayor’s ability to govern depends on the council, and a council that shares the mayor’s priorities can move faster than one that does not. The new council will take office with a clear mandate from voters, and with the expectation that it will deliver on the issues that dominated the campaign.
The officials elected in Brooklyn Park’s 2026 municipal contests are scheduled to begin their four-year terms on January 4, 2027. That gives the outgoing council two more months to finish its business, and the incoming council time to prepare. For Winston, the second term is an opportunity to build on the first, and to show that the history he made in 2022 was the beginning of a longer story, not a single moment.
Kragness wins big in Brooklyn Center
In Brooklyn Center, the result was even more decisive. Teneshia Kragness, a City Council member and the city’s mayor pro tem, won the mayoral election with 6,068 votes, or 64.42 percent, compared with Alexander Koenig’s 3,294 votes, or 34.97 percent, according to unofficial results from the Minnesota Secretary of State. All six precincts reported, giving Kragness a 2,774-vote victory. She will succeed Mayor April Graves, who did not seek re-election, and her win ensures that Black leadership will continue in the mayor’s office.
Kragness addressed supporters during an Election Night gathering at Buansavanh Banquet Hall in Brooklyn Park on Tuesday, and her victory was celebrated as a decisive mandate. As a sitting council member and mayor pro tem, she campaigned on her experience in city government and her knowledge of the issues facing Brooklyn Center, and voters rewarded that experience with a margin that left no doubt about the outcome. Koenig, her opponent, ran a campaign that argued for a different direction, but he could not overcome the advantage of a candidate who was already known to voters and already part of the city’s leadership.
The election also brought a significant change in minority representation at City Hall. Nahid Khan won one of two available City Council seats, while Gretchen Enger secured the other. Mark Viste, who had campaigned alongside Kragness and Khan, narrowly missed election. Enger led the field with 4,176 votes, or 27.88 percent, followed by Khan with 3,792 votes, or 25.32 percent. Incumbent Council member Dan Jerzak finished fourth with 3,434 votes, or 22.93 percent, and Viste received 3,462 votes, or 23.12 percent, finishing third in the four-candidate contest. Because voters could select two candidates, the council percentages represent shares of candidate votes rather than percentages of individual voters.
What the results mean for the northwest suburbs
The results in Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center fit into a broader pattern across the west metro suburbs, where voters returned incumbents and chose continuity over change. In Plymouth, incumbent Mayor Jeff Wosje successfully defended his seat against challenger Clark Gregor, receiving 54.30 percent of the vote, or 20,122 votes, to Gregor’s 45.37 percent, or 16,810 votes. In Maple Grove, Mayor Mark Steffenson won re-election with 72.37 percent of the vote. In Medina, Mayor Todd Albers won with 98.20 percent. The pattern suggests that voters in the suburbs are broadly content with their local governments, and that they are not looking for a change in direction at City Hall, even as they voted for change in Washington.
That contrast is worth noting. The same voters who helped sweep Democrats into control of Congress also returned their local mayors to office, in cities where the elections are nonpartisan and the issues are practical rather than ideological. Local elections are decided on the quality of services, the state of the roads, the safety of the neighborhoods, and the cost of living in the city, and voters judge their mayors on those things, not on national politics. The mayors who won on Tuesday won because voters thought they were doing a good job, and the mayors who lost, where they lost, lost for the same reason.
For Winston and Kragness, the work begins now. Both will take office in January, and both will face the same challenges that every mayor faces: a budget to balance, a council to work with, and a community that expects results. Their victories give them a mandate, but a mandate is only the beginning. The next four years will decide whether the history made on Tuesday night becomes a lasting change in the cities they lead.
Sources
USN reviewed reporting from multiple outlets for this story. Read more from Mshale, Mshale and CCX Media.