A sideroom at the Capri Theater was filled with supporters and people curious about what DeWayne Davis was bringing to the 2025 Minneapolis mayoral race on a bitterly cold Monday night.

Davis is running for mayor alongside Sen. Omar Fateh, Councilmember Emily Koski, and incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey, putting his name recognition much behind his elected-official opponents.

According to the Davis campaign, 125 people attended the Jan. 13 event that included a short list of speakers: Dana Badgerow, Hennepin County Commissioner Irene Fernando, and former City Councilmember Elizabeth Glidden.

“No one has a clearer vision of what Minneapolis needs to be than DeWayne Davis,” Badgerow said. “It’s not just for the few, but for the marginalized, the unseen, the struggling. He talks about it all the time. And then he lives that vision through what he does, day to day.”

Davis married Badgerow and her wife, Kathy Barclay in 2014 when Davis was a pastor at All God’s Children in the Seward neighborhood. Badgerow was formerly in Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s cabinet and president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota.

Davis, the lead minister at Plymouth Congregation Church in Stevens Square since 2020, outlined his campaign’s area of focus –dignity, opportunity, and safety–after sharing a narrative about his upbringing.

The youngest of 15 children, Davis was raised by his parents, once sharecroppers, in Mississippi. His dad became a minister and his parents put all of their children through college.

“They modeled for me that every person is entitled to have the world open up for them to realize their dreams,” Davis said.

Reflecting on the campaign’s focus on dignity, Davis told the crowd, “everybody counts and everybody is depending on us to work for them. There is a body, there is a living experience, behind everything we do.”

Davis talked about the immediate needs of residents when outlining his campaign’s focus on opportunity and safety, while naming a housing affordability crisis, homelessness crisis, and community safety problem in Minneapolis.

“We know that when people are safely housed that means that they have an opportunity to get a job. If we provide transportation, we know they can get to their job,” Davis said. “Our communities will be safe because people will have jobs, living wages, a place to go, a place to call community. They don't have to choose a life of crime or a life of neglect.”

Davis spent time after his prepared remarks talking individually with people and taking photos.

Davis shared with Southwest Voices that his safety platform also includes seriously committing to the concurrent consent decrees with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the federal Department of Justice (currently pending a judge sign-off). According to Davis, consent decrees are not successful when “City leadership has taken their eyes off of it.”