Marvina Haynes
BY CLINT COMBS
On November 4, voters in Ward 4 will choose between incumbent LaTrisha Vetaw and her challenger Marvina Haynes. In 2021, Vetaw knocked off Council Member Phillipe Cunningham after campaigning against a 2020 charter amendment to disband the Minneapolis Police Department.
Vetaw has aligned with conservative Council Members Michael Rainville (Ward 3) and Linea Palmisano (Ward 13) on key issues such as rent control policies, creating a city-wide Labor Standards Board, and raising wages for Uber/Lyft drivers. The Ward 4
race will test which slate of policies best represents Northside’s predominantly African-American and growing Hispanic communities.
“It appears to be a big split that’s happening, and you have certain council members that vote, no matter if it’s wrong or right, the same way because they have formed a pack,” Haynes said.
Haynes, a longtime North Minneapolis resident, is a vocal advocate for criminal justice reform. Over the past decade, she fought to free her brother, Marvin Haynes, who was convicted of a murder he maintains he did not commit. After a judge vacated his sentence, a personal experience with the criminal legal system affirmed her views.
Haynes was inside her North Minneapolis home when push alerts pinged the cell phones of Brooklyn Park residents, warning them to shelter in place. They didn’t warn North Minneapolis residents. The alerts were related to Vance Boelter, the alleged assassin indicted on six charges for stalking and murdering Minnesota House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman. Boelter’s roommate, David Carlson, told the Star Tribune’s Susan Du that Boelter returned to his part-time rental on Fremont Avenue North at about 6 a.m. on June 14.
Vetaw has maintained that North Minneapolis was never really in danger. Haynes, however, sees this as a failure of a police department rife with racism and corruption to protect North Minneapolis residents. “It’s about who is protected, who is warned, and who is left behind,” Haynes told the Star Tribune.
Marvina Haynes, Candidate for Ward 4 with her brother Marvin Haynes who had his conviction vacated in 2023. (photo/Clint Combs Southside Pride)
Haynes supports the creation of a labor standards board, unionization, and rent control. “Labor boards and unions ensure that working people get what they deserve,” she said. By way of example, she cited the So Low grocery store on Emerson Avenue, where employees lack union protections despite years of service.
Vetaw voted against the Labor Standards Board and opposed raising the minimum wage for ride-share drivers.
Haynes also discussed the importance of family stability, noting that criminal justice systems and Child Protection Services often separate families. “I take the whole experience, and that’s the part of the reason why I’m running for the City Council, because my family has experienced the firsthand effects that when we don’t get it right, families are separated,” Haynes said.
Haynes feels nostalgic about the opportunities that children had growing up on the North Side in the 90s. “We had the Boys and Girls Club that was always open,” Haynes said. She remembers the skating rink like it was yesterday. “The skating rink was in St. Louis Park, but a lot of kids caught the bus downtown like the 7 or the 4 over to St. Louis Park.”
Haynes also emphasized homeownership as the most pressing issue for Black voters in Ward 4.
“Homeownership is a path to wealth,” Haynes said.
“Right now, landlords require 640 credit scores to rent, but many people are renting while trying to fix their credit.”
In the summer of 2024, the Minneapolis City Council approved a 22% pay increase for MPD over three years as city officials tried to radically overhaul the unconstitutional policing practices from this historically trouble-plagued police department. A federal investigation by the Department of Justice found that Minneapolis engaged in a “pattern or practice” of excessive force and racial discrimination that violated the Constitution. Haynes saw this as a bargaining chip to reign in these practices after the murders of George Floyd, Daunte Wright and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, MN .
“I think if we are going to increase the police budget, we can’t just give in on the repair piece, and that piece was never identified,” Haynes said.
Haynes represents one side of a painful divide in Minneapolis, those who have experienced police abuse firsthand and demand reform, while Vetaw, despite sharing her racial identity, has unconditionally backed law enforcement.
“It really breaks my heart that Vetaw, as a Black woman who knows the damage that policing has done in the Black community and the indigenous community, that she will continue to sit high and vote the way that she does as a Black woman with Black cousins, nieces and nephews, so I’m very disappointed in her behavior.”
Jazz Hampton, founder of the app Turn Signal, a pro bono attorney with the Great North Innocence Project, represented Hayne’s brother Marvin: “Imagine being sentenced to life in prison as a teenager for a crime you didn’t commit,” Hampton said in a social media post in 2023. He goes on to describe the discrepancies between witnesses’ testimony.
Haynes expressed support for mayoral candidates like DeWayne Davis, Omar Fateh, and especially Jazz Hampton.
“I really connected with them,” Haynes said.
“Jazz Hampton’s family adopted my cousin after he and my aunt’s children were impacted by Child Protection Services. It was surreal how it all came together. Their work to help families made me realize how interconnected our communities are.”
