Taxpayers are Paying to Train Somalis to Run for Office

Editor’s note: Below is an excerpt from the upcoming Freedom Center report, Election Jihad II: How to Dismantle the Islamic Political Machine, that delves into what happened in the 2026 election and exposes the Islamist and radical political forces taking over our country.

There are 10 Somali elected officials in Minnesota: including Rep. Ilhan Omar. The latest Somali elected official is Abdi Daisane, whose day center received $7.2 million in taxpayer money despite repeated violations, and whose wife reportedly said, “I smuggled myself and jumped over the wall”, and who has just flipped a Republican Minnesota State House seat in St. Cloud.

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There are now 4 Somali Minnesota State House and 2 State Senate members, and while there isn’t a single African American woman in the Minnesota State Senate, there are multiple African immigrants, even though African Americans make up 8% of Minnesota and Somalis only 1%.

Other Somali elected officials in the state include Minneapolis Councilman Jamal Osman, St. Louis Park Mayor Nadia Mohamed, and St. Cloud Councilwoman Hudda Ibrahim, whose husband was accused of intimidating voters and who, according to a news story, was caught using an ID with a completely different name during a voter fraud investigation in which a woman in a burka had submitted two absentee ballots.

There are now more Somalis, Kenyans and Nigerians in the Minnesota State House than African Americans. Nevertheless, taxpayers have been funding an organization that trains Somalis to run for political office.

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Ayada Leads offers to train Somali Muslim candidates in “campaign planning & strategizing”, “fundraising”, “endorsements” and “ground game and field game”.

The site states that, “Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is the first woman Ayada Leads recruited to run for office” and Habon Abdulle, a Somali immigrant from Mogadishu who heads Ayada Leads was honored by Rep. Omar on the House floor and invited as her guest to the State of the Union address in 2020. Ayada has also taken credit for State Sen. Zaynab Mohamed, State Rep. Hodan Hassan, and Mayor Nadia Mohamed of St. Louis Park, MN whom the Somali political training group describes as “the youngest elected official trained by Ayada Leads”.

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In 2023, Propel Nonprofits, a leftist non-profit hub, announced $3.2M in “infrastructure funding” for “56 culturally led nonprofit organizations” including Ayada Leads so that the Somali campaign training group could hire a “Development Manager and a Community Outreach Coordinator to alleviate their current workload”. Under Naima Farah, a Somali Propel leader, and board member at Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment (RISE), the leftist non-profit had also moved money to Ayada Leads as a “Family Engagement Grant”.

That funding round had included not only Ayada Leads, but also the Advancing Equity Coalition, of which Ayada is a member, and two other Somali groups: one named “Somali Success”.

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The non-profit’s “campaign school curriculum” has “been developed to support budding political leaders in developing the confidence and skills needed to launch winning campaigns” and promises to introduce students to “top political strategists and trainers” who “will share culturally competent expertise on critical elements of campaigning” including “campaign planning & strategizing”, “fundraising”, “endorsements” and “ground and field game”.

Ayada Leads recruits Somali women looking to get “trained to run for office” or working on a political campaign. And it’s flouting the law by doing it as a 501(c)(3) and taking taxpayer money.

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Should taxpayers be funding a Somali political training and advocacy program?

Ayada Leads tries to pretend that it has educational programs and is for women in general, but constantly pivots back to political activism and Somali identity. For example, it promotes “Bashaal Events” which it advertises as, “Bashaal gatherings create spaces for women of all backgrounds and identities to come together and share critical information on leadership opportunities and challenges.” Bashaal, like Ayada, is a Somali word and a Somali concept.

Why have Somalis developed more political representation than African-Americans? One reason is because they have benefited from close tribal networks that propel them to power.

And those networks have been infused with large amounts of taxpayer and non-profit cash.

(*) Full article: https://www.frontpagemag.com/taxpayers-are-paying-to-train-somalis-to-run-for-office/