Abdi Daisane spent 18 years in a refugee camp in Kenya. On Tuesday, St. Cloud voters elected him to the Minnesota House, the first Somali American lawmaker ever sent to the Capitol from Central Minnesota.
Daisane, a 38-year-old Democrat (DFL, in Minnesota), won House District 14A with about 52% of the vote over Republican Mike Conway, the St. Cloud City Council president. The seat had been Republican since at least 2002, according to Sahan Journal. Daisane ran for it in 2024 and lost with 44%. This time he gained roughly 700 votes while Conway drew about 2,400 fewer than the last Republican incumbent had.
He was born during Somalia’s civil war and came to the United States through the refugee program. He moved to St. Cloud in 2013 to study at St. Cloud State University, where he earned a master’s in public administration. He runs a child care business and consults for other entrepreneurs.
Somali residents make up about 8% of St. Cloud, the third-highest share of any Minnesota city, Sahan Journal reports, and the city’s population of people who are not white has doubled since 2010. Daisane did not run from that. “I’m everything that a lot of politicians are campaigning against these days: I’m Somali-American. I’m a Muslim. I’m Black. I’m an immigrant,” he said, as Sahan Journal reported.
Conservative outlets, including Fox News and Alpha News, have since scrutinized his child care center. They note that its food-program sponsor, Partners in Nutrition, paid an $18.5 million civil settlement over defrauding the state, and that the center has been cited for violations. Fox News did not report any charge against Daisane, and he did not respond to its request for comment. Voters heard all of it and chose him anyway.
Black Somali Minnesotans have been used as a talking point in campaigns for years, by politicians who rarely lived next to them. Daisane’s win puts one of them in the room where the state budget gets written. He joins two other Democrats from the St. Cloud area headed to the Capitol: state Sen. Aric Putnam, who won a third term with 56%, and Zach Dorholt, who took House District 14B with 57%.
The Legislature convenes in January, when Daisane will be sworn in.
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