Cedrick Frazier is trying to take over Hennepin County’s top prosecutor job in a race that now runs directly through public safety, campus anxiety and a shrinking runway to Election Day. He is facing Anders Folk in the 2026 midterms for the office now held by Mary Moriarty.
The contest matters because the Hennepin County Attorney is the elected official most responsible for how the county responds to serious crime. The prosecutor helps set the standards for what is considered murder, who goes to jail for it and how long they stay there, which makes the race about more than party labels or campaign style.
Frazier is a three-term state representative from New Hope, and he is being cast as the more progressive choice. Folk, the former acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, is running on his federal-prosecutor résumé and on a pitch that experience should matter most in the county’s largest prosecution office. He signed the federal indictment charging Derek Chauvin with violating George Floyd’s civil rights in 2020, and he has said his top priority is prosecuting repeat, violent criminals while balancing consequences and compassion for criminal behavior.
That message is colliding with a hard fact on the ground: only two out of 26 University of Minnesota students informally surveyed knew the race was even happening, even as shootings near campus remain a live concern. In Dinkytown, the number of gunshot wounds tripled from 2019 to 2024, aggravated assault cases rose by 41% over the same span, and Ella Albrecht says she was awakened by 20 automatic gunshots at 2 a.m. on Nov. 1, 2025, while dressed as Strawberry Shortcake. She also saw the aftermath of a shooting on Halloween night last year that killed one person, and said, “It’s just sad,” adding that students her age should not have to witness that while they are still adjusting.
The gap in awareness may be as important as the policy divide. Even as shots-fired calls in Ward 2 have fallen 20% in the last two years, the race has not yet fully landed with the voters most likely to feel the consequences of the next county attorney’s decisions. That leaves Frazier and Folk competing not just over who should lead the office, but over whether Hennepin County wants a more progressive approach or a more familiar law-and-order hand when voters cast their ballots in November.
