Who Is Abdi Daisane? Somalian Daycare Owner Linked to $18.5M Taxpayer Fraud Wins Minnesota House Race

A Somali-born daycare owner whose business received millions of dollars in taxpayer funding and had ties to a nonprofit involved in an $18.5 million fraud settlement has won the Minnesota state legislature.

Abdi Daisane, owner of Blooming Kids Child Care Center in St. Cloud, won Tuesday’s midterm election despite mounting questions surrounding his business and its participation in taxpayer-funded childcare programs.

The Democrat secured Minnesota House District 14A with around 52% of the vote, defeating Republican Mike Conway, who is the president of the St. Cloud City Council. Daisane becomes the first Somali-born state legislator from St. Cloud, taking a seat that Republicans had held for more than 20 years.

Tainted Past

Daisane’s election has drawn scrutiny because his childcare business has received millions of dollars in public funding, including payments distributed through an organization that recently reached an $18.5 million fraud settlement.

Fox News reported that Blooming Kids Child Care Center received $7.29 million from Minnesota’s state-funded Child Care Assistance Program between 2018 and 2026. The center also collected nearly $600,000 through the federally funded Child and Adult Care Food Program beginning in 2020.

Those payments were sponsored by Partners in Nutrition, a nonprofit that agreed to pay $18.5 million to settle a civil fraud case brought by Minnesota authorities in September.

Partners in Nutrition faced allegations that it had filed fraudulent claims for meals that were never served to children during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Announcing the settlement, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the nonprofit had ‘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.’

Under the agreement, the organization must turn over its remaining funds, assist investigators and permanently shut down.

Case Still Ongoing

However, Blooming Kids was not named as a defendant in the case, and no findings have established that Daisane or his childcare center was involved in the alleged fraud. State authorities have also confirmed that investigations into other individuals and organizations associated with the nonprofit are continuing.

Separately, concerns have been raised about the daycare’s operations after reporters found the facility seemingly quiet during a visit earlier this week.

The visit came after conservative Minnesota outlet Alpha News published an investigation citing a worker at a neighboring business who said they could not recall seeing children entering or leaving the center.

The outlet also reported that Blooming Kids had faced more than a dozen licensing violations. Local media investigations separately raised concerns about staff supervision, employee training, medical records and the facility’s cleanliness.

Although some of the earlier violations were later addressed, the daycare received additional citations in October.

Nevertheless, the 38-year-old scored a major political win Tuesday, defeating Conway by 9,164 votes to 8,570.

Daisane had contested the same House district in 2024 but lost to Republican state Representative Bernie Perryman. Perryman chose not to run for reelection this year, opting instead to seek a seat in the state Senate, a campaign he ultimately lost.

Daisane’s second bid for the seat was successful. The childcare business owner celebrated his victory with a speech delivered partly in Somali.

Born in Somalia, Daisane spent much of his childhood in a refugee camp in Kenya before immigrating to the United States in 2009. He eventually settled in St. Cloud, attended St. Cloud State University and went on to establish his childcare business.

His campaign focused on affordable housing, education, economic opportunity and government accountability, including efforts to address fraud.