The campaign manager for Minneapolis City Council candidate Nasri Warsame accused Council Member Jeremiah Ellison of assaulting him during Saturday’s brawl at a Minneapolis DFL endorsing convention.
Abshir Omar made the allegation during a press conference Wednesday called by the Warsame campaign, where the Ward 10 candidate fought back against the notion that his supporters were to blame for the fiasco, according to Star Tribune reporter Dave Orrick.
Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin concluded, after reviewing the 6-minute video of the events, that Warsame’s supporters were responsible.
Warsame is running against incumbent Ward 10 Council Member Aisha Chughtai, a Democratic Socialist and Ellison ally.
Omar, a former consultant for Feeding Our Future, said Ellison, the son of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, punched him with both fists in the chest, according to Orrick.
Council Member Ellison called the accusation a “meager and weak attempt to evade accountability.”
“I’d like to state that all accusations saying that I had any involvement in perpetuating violence, is a lie,” Ellison wrote on Twitter. “What I haven’t heard yet is an apology from Nasri to Councilmember Chughtai. That should have been the first thing coming from his team.”
It is a meager and weak attempt to evade accountability and reach for whatever political gain Warsame thinks my name will garner him.
Second, what I haven’t heard yet is an apology from Nasri to Councilmember Chughtai. That should have been the first thing coming from his team.
— Jeremiah Ellison (@jeremiah4north) May 17, 2023
Following Saturday’s violence, which concluded with no endorsement, Martin said he plans to seek approval from the state executive committee to ban “individuals engaged in violent assaults from the DFL Party.” Party leaders reportedly plan to hold a meeting Thursday.
Chughtai claimed in a statement that more than a dozen of her supporters or party volunteers were “physically assaulted” Saturday.
“The Warsame campaign punched multiple women of color on our campaign team, and shoved and harassed LGBTQIA2S+ delegates and supporters,” said Chughtai, who served as U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s campaign manager in 2018.
“We don’t know yet what is going to happen next with the DFL process, but it is clear that the Minnesota DFL’s unwillingness to hold those who perpetrate violence against Muslim women has, over time, led to multiple incidents of violence like what we saw today,” she added. “And as what we saw today is a significant escalation of any previous incidents, continuing to let this go unchecked will lead to fewer Muslim women and women of color stepping up to lead in our communities because they have seen evidence the DFL won’t protect them.”
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
