The next mayor of Minneapolis might be a Somali democratic socialist who sounds a whole lot like New York’s Zohran Mamdani. Like Mamdani, Muslim State Senator Omar Fateh would jack up the minimum wage, provide “free” public housing, and refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He also introduced a bill in the state senate to provide “free” college tuition.
Fateh is one of five candidates seeking the nomination of the state‘s Democrat Farm Labor Party. If he wins, he would unseat far-left incumbent Jacob Frey. The city votes on July 19.
Fateh’s “Vision”
The son of immigrants and sister-in-law of yet another Somali state senator, Zaynab Mohamed, Fateh explained yesterday why he’s running.
“As a renter in Stevens Square with a full-time job on top of my part-time Senator job, and a baby on the way, I want to keep money in working people’s pockets and circulating in our local economy,” he explained on X. “That’s why I’ll work to implement a $20 minimum wage by 2028 & rent stabilization.”
Fateh will also “prevent rental evictions — the largest contributor to homelessness — by establishing a Just Cause eviction policy,” his website says.
Who will determine a “just cause” his website doesn’t explain.
He will also “pivot from the practice of evicting [homeless] encampments when there is nowhere for residents to go and instead work with other jurisdictions to ensure immediate access to safe alternative locations with increased access to essential services.”
Fateh also wants to provide “life-saving infrastructure like hand-washing stations, portable bathrooms, running water, safe needle disposal programs, and storage for personal belongings.”
All on the taxpayers’ dime, of course.
Fateh claims that 47 percent of calls to 911 don’t require a cop, but instead “appropriate responders,” who will, it appears, not carry firearms.
Fateh will work on “prioritizing environmental justice,” which includes implementing carbon fees and “building a climate resilient city.”
Fateh’s initiatives will “empower minority communities,” and he will seek permission from the state legislature to impose a local income tax to ensure that the “wealthy pay their fair share.” The website does not explain what that “fair share” is.
Standing Up to Trump
As for immigration, he wrote on X, “as Mayor, I’ll stand up for our progressive values & ensure the MPD doesn’t interact with ICE — immigration raid or not.”
His “vision” on that count is “protecting our communities from a hostile federal government.”
“The only way to stand up to Trump and his posse of unelected billionaires is to create a city that is radically inclusive and stands up for those who are the most at risk,” the website claims,” as Trump “wages war on oppressed and vulnerable people.”
On that count, he differs little from Frey. The hate-Trump mayor has vowed to break the federal law that forbids harboring illegal aliens. In March, Frey said Minneapolis will remain a “safe haven” for them.
Scandals
As with Somali U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, Fateh’s political activities are linked to multiple scandals. And also like Omar — who married her brother to commit immigration and student loan fraud — one of Fateh’s involved family.
“The far-left Fateh has racked up an impressive number of scandals in his short, four-year political career. City hall reporter Deena Winter (now with the Minnesota Star Tribune) documented many of them, back when she wrote for the MN Reformer,” the American Experiment explained.
Under the headline “Fateh volunteer convicted of lying to grand jury about his handling of absentee ballots,” Winter explained that a federal jury convicted Muse Mohamud Mohamed, Fateh’s brother-in-law, “of lying to a grand jury when he said he returned three absentee ballots for voters, upon their request, during the 2020 primary election.”
Fateh was also linked to the crooks who ran the Feeding Our Future outfit, which defrauded the Federal Child Nutrition Program of $250 million.
“When the Feeding Our Future scandal broke in January 2022, it was revealed that Sen. Fateh had to return 11 campaign contributions totaling $11,000 received from individuals linked to the case. (Out of a total of $41,000 raised that year (2021),” the website explained.
Indeed, the website explained in another piece, “Fateh is the largest single recipient of campaign donations from figures involved in the scandal. Among the donors to Fateh’s campaign were Salim Said.”
In March, Said was found guilty of bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, and other charges.
Fateh was a big supporter of the scam. He accepted contributions “from at least [10] individuals who were later indicted,” the website reported.
Given the heavy Somali involvement in the fraud, an obvious question is what Fateh knew about it and when.
Quid Pro Quo
Also like Omar, yet another Fateh scandal involved campaign-finance shenanigans. A Senate ethics panel upheld a complaint from Republicans that he had not paid the channel $1,000 for ads on the Somali TV YouTube channel during his 2020 campaign.
After the channel ran his ads, Republicans said, he lined up $500,000 in public funding for it.
“Once in the Senate, Sen. Fateh wrote legislation to give Somali TV a taxpayer funded grant of $500,000,” GOP Senator Steve Drazkowski said:
Doesn’t this sound like outrageous corruption?” Sen. Fateh may have been conducting a quid pro quo in which he solicits the support of Somali TV only to turn around and give them half-a-million dollars of taxpayer money. Additionally, Somali TV’s continued support of political candidates (they ran ads for Jamal Osman’s city council campaign in 2021) constitutes illegal campaign support from a nonprofit organization.
The ethics panel did not find that the $500,000 was payback for the ads.
