A St. Cloud daycare owner whose business has drawn scrutiny over taxpayer funding and a link to a major Minnesota fraud settlement won a seat in the Minnesota House.
DemocraticFarmerLabor candidate Abdi Daisane defeated Republican incumbent Mike Conway for House District 14A, flipping the seat with unofficial results of about 51.6% to 48.3%, Alpha News and MPR News reported. Fox News Digital also covered the race. Daisane becomes the first Somali-born lawmaker from St. Cloud in the statehouse.
Daisane is CEO of Blooming Kids Child Care Center in St. Cloud. Records show the center has received about $7.29 million through Minnesota's Child Care Assistance Program since 2018. It also received roughly $598,252 in approved claims through the federally funded Child and Adult Care Food Program since 2020.
Partners in Nutrition, a nonprofit that sponsored Blooming Kids for CACFP funds from 2020 into early 2022, recently agreed to an $18.5 million civil settlement with the state over alleged child-nutrition fraud. A settlement release says the nonprofit "knowingly defrauded the State of Minnesota out of millions of dollars in federal child nutrition funds" during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Blooming Kids was not named as a defendant in that case, and there is no public record that Daisane was personally charged or convicted in the Partners in Nutrition matter. Minnesota officials have said related investigations into individuals and site operators remain ongoing.
Alpha News has also reported a long string of state licensing citations at Blooming Kids, including supervision, discipline and background-study problems, plus a $400 fine after an employee worked with children for months on an expired background study. A nearby worker told Alpha News they never saw children entering or exiting the facility, while acknowledging a rear entrance they could not observe.
Fox News Digital visited the center Thursday and described a quiet downtown storefront with tinted windows and a small fenced playground. Daisane did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Online reaction to the win was swift and harsh, with conservative commentators calling Minnesota a "lost state." Questions have also circulated about immigration comments by Daisane's wife, Ayaan Aydid, in a BBC interview. Those claims are separate from the election result and the sponsor-settlement link.
Daisane delivered part of his victory speech in Somali. He has campaigned in part on childcare issues even as his own center remains under public scrutiny for funding and compliance.
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