Somali voters in Minnesota are coming forward to support former President Donald Trump and vote for conservative candidates in November.
Salman Fiqy, a small business owner who recently ran in the Republican primary for a seat in the Minnesota House, joined Liz Collin Reports to explain why.
He was recently pictured right behind President Trump at a rally in St. Cloud. Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the United States with about 90,000 residents.
“This is a long conclusion that we arrived to. Due to many issues, the reason why we supported … soon to be President Donald Trump is due to some issues … some of the issues are education issues, economic issues, safety, and many other issues,” Fiqy said.
Fiqy said the reaction by so many people to seeing him seated behind Trump has been positive.
“Very positive among the Somali community because the feeling of people switching from Democratic Party to Republican Party resonates with a lot of people, a lot of Somali voters … the overwhelming majority of the Somali community were very happy about it and reacted really positively towards it,” he added.
Fiqy came to Minnesota 15 years ago as a Democrat, but he said after watching things “get worse” for years, he feels it is time for a change.
“Also coming from a Muslim faith, we tend to be very conservative people and some of the issues we cannot really turn a blind eye to, we cannot ignore some of the issues,” Fiqy said.
“Safety is one of the major concerns of the Somali community because if we look back at what happened in 2020 in the riots, Lake Street tends to be residential or where the Somali population have businesses and reside in. Many businesses went out of business because of the riots and the business activities have declined, as you may know,” he remarked.
Fiqy also discussed a restaurant owner he knew who had to pay $20,000 to remove a homeless encampment on his own after the city of Minneapolis refused to do anything about it.
He worries about the environment that has been created for Somali youth in Minneapolis.
“The environment is not helping from the drug influx to the lack of safety. A lot of people to fall in that kind of trap and … become outlaws,” he said.
Fiqy considers education “the major concern.” In many cases, Somali families have led the pushback to left-wing education policies in the Twin Cities.
“I know exactly why I’m supporting what I’m supporting right now, why I switched to the Republican Party for the values and the principles that they stand for. We have shared values and interests with the Republican Party. I don’t really care about the backlash,” Fiqy said.
“There’s of course, people who accuse the Republican party as … really racist or something, but it’s contrary to that claim and it’s very welcoming. Ever since I joined the party, it was very welcoming, very warm, and loving. I think that kind of rhetoric was used in a political way.”
Liz Collin
Liz Collin has been a truth-teller for 20 years as a multi-Emmy-Award-winning reporter and anchor. Liz is a Worthington, Minnesota native who lives in the suburbs with her husband, son and loyal lab.
