Abdi Daisane, the owner of a St. Cloud childcare center that has drawn scrutiny over public funding, won a seat in the Minnesota House on Tuesday, defeating Republican incumbent Mike Conway.
Daisane, a Democrat-Farmer-Labor candidate, will represent House District 14A. He is the first Somali-born lawmaker from St. Cloud to serve in the state Legislature. Part of his victory speech was delivered in Somali.
Daisane is CEO of Blooming Kids Child Care Center. Since 2018, the center has received $7.29 million through Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program. It has also received $598,251.62 in federal Child and Adult Care Food Program funding since 2020.
Partners in Nutrition, a nonprofit that sponsored the center’s food-program funding, recently agreed to pay $18.5 million to settle a civil fraud case. Minnesota officials said the nonprofit knowingly obtained millions of dollars in federal child nutrition funds improperly during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The settlement concerns the nonprofit; the information provided does not establish that the childcare center was involved in its conduct.
A visit to Blooming Kids on Thursday found little activity outside the center. The building sits on a main road in downtown St. Cloud. A sign on its street-facing door directs visitors to another entrance, and mirrored film covers the large windows. The nearby parking lot was mostly empty, and a small fenced playground behind the building held two jungle gyms.
In late October, Alpha News reported that a nearby worker said they had never seen children enter or leave the center. The outlet also reported that the facility had been cited for more than a dozen violations.
Questions about the immigration status of Daisane’s wife, Ayaan Aydid, have also circulated online after a video showed her describing to the BBC how she entered the United States through the southern border.
Daisane did not respond to a request for comment. His election prompted critical reactions on social media, where several conservative commentators expressed alarm at the result. ACT for America founder Bridgette Gabriel also tagged the Department of Homeland Security and its secretary, Markwayne Mullin, in a post about Daisane’s victory and online claims concerning his wife.
