A Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate whose daycare center has drawn scrutiny over state and federal funding won a state House seat Tuesday. Abdi Daisane defeated a Republican incumbent to take House District 14A in St. Cloud, according to MPR News, making him the first Somali-born lawmaker from that city in the statehouse.

Daisane, who delivered part of his victory speech in Somali, is the CEO of Blooming Kids Child Care Center. The center’s federal food-program sponsor recently paid an $18.5 million civil settlement for fraud against the state. Daisane did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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From Fox News:

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.

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.

Alpha News reported on the funding in late October, and spoke with a nearby worker who said they never saw children entering or exiting the childcare facility. The outlet also reported that Blooming Kids Child Care Center has been cited for over a dozen violations.

The settlement was not with Blooming Kids but with its sponsor. A press release announcing it said 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.” No allegation of wrongdoing has been made against Daisane in the reporting, and he has not been charged with any crime. Fox News Digital’s Thursday visit to the center found a paper sign redirecting visitors from the street-facing wooden door, tinted and mirrored film over floor-to-ceiling windows, a mostly empty parking lot, and a small fenced playground holding two jungle gyms.

Separately, questions about the immigration status of Daisane’s wife, Ayaan Aydid, have circulated online after a video surfaced of her telling the BBC how she crossed into the United States at the southern border. None of those claims has been independently verified, and the report does not say whether any agency has opened a review.

The result drew immediate reaction online. Red Ax Strategies President Matt Brodsky wrote, “We are a lost state. We should cede it to Canada.” Conservative commentator Eric Daugherty posted, “MINNESOTA IS SO FREAKING COOKED,” and conservative personality Gunther Eagleman wrote, “Minnesota is done.” ACT for America founder Bridgette Gabriel flagged a post about the election and the immigration questions to the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Markwayne Mullin, writing, “[G]reat opportunity to do something about this.” The state House DFL caucus did not respond to a request for comment on the settlement or the violations.

Minnesota’s child care programs exist to serve poor children whose parents need to work, and the money flowing through them is drawn from taxpayers who were promised oversight. Seven million dollars to one center, paid out over eight years, alongside a dozen-plus citations and a sponsor that just admitted defrauding the same program, is not a paperwork problem. It is a supervision failure, and the public deserves a full accounting of who checked what and when. When a party’s response to those numbers is a seat in the legislature rather than a hearing, it tells voters plainly the partiality and corruption in the system. Proverbs 13:11 says, “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will make it increase.” Fraud in a program for poor children is theft from the poor and from every taxpayer who funded it. Pray that Minnesota officials would order a real audit of these funds rather than let the story fade, and that anyone who diverted money meant for children would be found out and held to account. Pray for the families in St. Cloud who relied on this center and now face uncertainty, and for legislators of both parties to treat oversight of public money as a duty rather than an inconvenience.

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(Excerpt from Fox News. Photo Credit: poplasen from Getty Images via Canva).