Minnesota voters on Tuesday elected a Somali daycare owner whose center has collected $7.29 million from the state childcare subsidy program at the heart of last winter’s viral fraud scandal.
Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) candidate Abdi Daisane, a Somali American who came to the US more than 15 years ago, won House District 14A with about 52% of the vote, beating Republican Mike Conway, the St. Cloud City Council president, and flipping a Republican-held seat, MPR News reported. He becomes St. Cloud’s first Somali American state lawmaker. Daisane lost the same race in 2024 to Republican Rep. Bernie Perryman, who ran for the state Senate this year instead.
Daisane gave part of his victory speech in Somali.
He spoke Somali for his victory speech https://t.co/6P67kFelZT pic.twitter.com/9xxZyj3Wnd
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 4, 2026
Daisane launched his second run for the seat on Christmas Eve 2025, the New York Post reported at the time. Two days later, YouTuber Nick Shirley posted his video tour of seemingly empty Somali-linked daycares – drawing more than 131 million views on X in five days, and FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau had surged agents and resources to Minnesota as the Trump administration froze childcare funding to the state. Days before Tuesday’s election, the Justice Department uncovered another $29 million in Minnesota benefits fraud.
Daisane hasn’t been charged with anything, and we found no sign his center appeared in Shirley’s videos.
The Money
Daisane is the CEO of Blooming Kids Child Care Center in St. Cloud. The center received $7.29 million in Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) payments from 2018 through 2025, according to Department of Children, Youth, and Families data posted by the Minnesota House’s Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee. The payments more than tripled in three years, from $439,034 in 2021 to $1.54 million in 2024, and held at $1.52 million in 2025. DCYF, which runs CCAP, wouldn’t provide payment information when Alpha News asked.
Blooming Kids also took in $598,251.62 in approved claims from the federally funded Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) since late 2020, according to Minnesota Department of Education records Alpha News obtained through a data request. MDE hadn’t confirmed the figure as of Alpha’s report.
From 2020 into early 2022, the center’s CACFP sponsor was Partners in Nutrition, Department of Education records reviewed by Alpha News show. In September, Partners in Nutrition agreed to hand over $18.5 million, everything it had, and permanently dissolve to settle Attorney General Keith Ellison’s lawsuit alleging it knowingly and repeatedly billed the state for meals that were never served between October 2020 and February 2022, and facilitated widespread fraud at the sites it was supposed to be monitoring.
Ellison put PIN in the same breath as Feeding Our Future, the nonprofit at the center of Minnesota’s pandemic food-aid fraud prosecutions, blaming “bad actors like PIN and Feeding Our Future” for eroding trust in government programs. “My office continues to actively investigate a number of individuals and entities affiliated with PIN for violations of the Minnesota False Claims Act,” he said. Blooming Kids was not among the food sites named in the lawsuit. Alpha News asked whether the center, Daisane or anyone tied to it had been investigated in connection with Partners in Nutrition; Ellison’s office didn’t respond.
So Where Are The Kids?
Late last month, a worker at a nearby business told Alpha News, “I do not recall ever seeing children entering or leaving the facility,” and said a white van tied to the center carried only an adult driver. The same source later reported seeing roughly 5 to 10 school-age children on the rear playground around 5:00 to 5:30 p.m. on some occasions. Fox News Digital visited on Thursday and found a mostly empty parking lot, windows covered in tinted, mirrored film and a paper sign on the front door directing visitors to another entrance.
The Violations
State regulators have cited Blooming Kids for at least 16 licensing violations in three reviews between October 2024 and October 2025, Alpha News found in state records. In the October 2024 review, regulators found children “were subjected to prohibited disciplinary actions.” An April 2025 licensing investigation found staff “did not supervise the children at all times.” The October 2025 review flagged infants not placed on their backs to sleep without the required documentation, unlabeled infant bottles and lapses in required CPR and first-aid training.
The state also fined the center $400 in November 2024 for two background-study violations, including letting an employee work for nearly seven months after the worker’s background study expired. The order was addressed to Daisane as the center’s authorized agent. The Department of Human Services’ licensing database shows another review, on Oct. 8 of this year, that also found violations. Blooming Kids is licensed for up to 113 children, and its license remains active.
During his first run in 2024, after a 2023 review cited the center for equipment in disrepair and missing immunization and staff-qualification records, Daisane told St. Cloud Live, “I have always prioritized providing a safe and nurturing environment for all children,” and said that when problems come up, “we learn from our mistakes and we do better next time.”
The Wife
Daisane’s wife told BBC Somali in 2023 that she crossed the US-Mexico border to join him, an interview that resurfaced online during the campaign. “I smuggled myself and jumped over the wall for my love,” she said, according to Alpha News’ translation.
🚨 UPDATE: Somali “daycare owner” Abdi Daisane (D) has just been elected to the state Minnesota House – and is wife has BRAGGED about ILLEGALLY INVADING our country
Daisane’s St. Cloud “daycare,” Blooming Kids, has been cited for 16 state violations since July 2024 ‼️
“I… pic.twitter.com/9WlG5znxqK
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 4, 2026
Daisane’s campaign didn’t answer Alpha News’ questions about her entry or the violations, and Daisane didn’t respond to Alpha or Fox News about the center’s funding.
After the results came in, ACT for America founder Brigitte Gabriel tagged DHS and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on a post about Daisane’s win and his wife: “great opportunity to do something about this.”
@DHSgov @SecMullinDHS – great opportunity to do something about this
— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) November 5, 2026
“We are a lost state. We should cede it to Canada,” posted Matt Brodsky, president of Red Ax Strategies.
We are a lost state. We should cede it to Canada. https://t.co/p68oigDbHg
— Matthew RJ Brodsky (@MattRJBrodsky) November 5, 2026
