ST.CLOUD, MINN.
— The owner of a Somali daycare center that has faced scrutiny over state and federal funding and is linked to a massive fraud settlement won a seat in the Minnesota legislature Tuesday night.Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) candidate Abdi Daisane defeated a Republican incumbent to win Minnesota’s House District 14A seat in St.Cloud, Minnesota, becoming the first Somali-born lawmaker in the statehouse from St.
Cloud, MPR News reported.Daisane, who delivered part of his victory speech in Somali, is the CEO of Blooming Kids Child Care Center in St.Cloud, which has received $7.29 million from the state-run Child Care Assistance Program since 2018.Abdi Daisane was elected to represent the St.
Cloud area in the Minnesota House.(Abdi Daisane for State Representative)His childcare business also received $598,251.62 from the federally-funded Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) since 2020.
A nonprofit called Partners in Nutrition, which recently had to pay an $18.5 million civil settlement for fraud, was the center's sponsor for CACFP funds.A press release from the settlement says Partners in Nutrition "knowingly defrauded the State of Minnesota out of millions of dollars in federal child nutrition funds during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, in violation of the Minnesota False Claims Act."MINNESOTA OFFICIAL'S VOTER GUIDE MESSAGE ON SOMALI TV TRIGGERS VIRAL BACKLASH: 'NOT AN ACCIDENT'Fox News Digital visited Blooming Kids Child Care Center on Thursday and found a quiet scene.The child care center is situated along a main road in St.
Cloud's small downtown.A paper sign on a wooden front door that faces the street directs visitors to a different entrance.
The floor-to-ceiling glass windows next to the door are covered with a tinted and mirrored film.The building is flanked by a parking lot that was mostly empty on Thursday afternoon.Behind the building is a tiny fenced-in playground, anchored by two children's jungle gyms that ...