Abdi Daisane, a Somali-American Democrat and CEO of Blooming Kids Child Care Center in St. Cloud, defeated a Republican incumbent to win Minnesota House District 14A on Tuesday, becoming the first Somali-born lawmaker from St. Cloud, Fox News reported Friday, citing MPR News.
Blooming Kids has received about $7.29 million from Minnesota's Child Care Assistance Program since 2018 and nearly $600,000 from the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program since 2020, Fox News said. The center's CACFP sponsor, Partners in Nutrition, recently paid an $18.5 million civil settlement after admitting it knowingly defrauded Minnesota out of federal child-nutrition funds, according to a settlement press release cited by Fox.
Alpha News previously reported more than a dozen licensing citations at the facility and quoted a nearby worker who said they never saw children entering or exiting. Fox News Digital visited the St. Cloud center Thursday and described a quiet downtown building with an empty-looking parking lot. Daisane did not respond to Fox's request for comment. Online critics including Eric Daugherty and others called Minnesota a "lost state" after the flip.
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