Defund the police? An urban electoral analysis of the Minneapolis, Minnesota, “defund” vote

Abstract

The 2019 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers initiated a national debate within the U.S. about the operation of municipal police departments. Ground zero for this discussion began in Minneapolis in an off-year municipal election (November 2021) with City Question 2, a local attempt to fundamentally change the mission and funding of the city police. This research is an electoral geographic analysis that examines the vote on City Question 2 by pairing precinct results with socioeconomic data from the Census Bureau. Results demonstrate the demographic and political divisions within the city. These findings are critical for grasping the complex breakdown of modern urban politics that tend to overwhelmingly vote for one party but are more nuanced in their policy preferences.