His Daycare Took $7.3 Million. Minnesota Just Sent Him to the House.

Abdi Daisane’s St. Cloud daycare has taken more than $7.3 million in Minnesota childcare subsidies. Its federal food-program sponsor just settled an $18.5 million fraud case with the state. On Tuesday, voters in a Trump-won House district sent Daisane to the Minnesota Legislature anyway.

Unofficial results compiled by Alpha News and MPR News put the Democrat–Farmer–Labor candidate at 9,163 votes (51.59%) and Republican Mike Conway, the St. Cloud City Council president, at 8,570 (48.25%) — a margin of 593 votes with all 18 precincts reporting. St. Cloud LIVE, citing the same unofficial tally, had Daisane at 9,164. The seat opened when GOP Rep. Bernie Perryman left to run for state Senate. In 2024 the district backed President Donald Trump by about 51.9% to 45.5%.

Daisane is CEO of Blooming Kids Child Care Center. He did not respond to Alpha News or Fox News Digital before or after the win.

$7.29 million in CCAP. $598,251 through a fraud-settling sponsor.

Records from the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, obtained by Alpha News, show Blooming Kids has received just over $7.29 million through the state’s Child Care Assistance Program since 2018. CCAP subsidizes childcare for low-income families and sits at the center of Minnesota’s running fraud scandals.

Separate MDE records provided to Alpha News show the center also booked $598,251.62 in approved Child and Adult Care Food Program claims since late 2020. Partners in Nutrition sponsored Blooming Kids for that federal food program from 2020 into early 2022.

On Sept. 24, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced an $18,517,909.27 civil settlement with Partners in Nutrition. Ellison’s office said the nonprofit “knowingly defrauded the State of Minnesota out of millions of dollars in federal child nutrition funds” and “knowingly and repeatedly” billed for meals that were not served. PIN agreed to dissolve. Ellison said investigations into affiliated individuals, site operators, and vendors are ongoing.

Blooming Kids was not named in that lawsuit. When Alpha News asked whether the center, Daisane, or anyone tied to the daycare is under investigation with PIN, the attorney general’s office did not answer.

“I do not recall ever seeing children entering or leaving”

In an Oct. 29 exclusive, Alpha News quoted a former neighbor-business employee who said, “I do not recall ever seeing children entering or leaving the facility.” The worker said the front of the building “routinely appeared dark and inactive” in normal hours, that a white van tied to the site carried only an adult when observed, and that a rear entrance they could not watch left open the possibility of unseen activity. The source reported the concerns to Minnesota’s fraud tip line and pulled the public records Alpha News published. Later the same source noted some school-age children on the rear playground around 5 p.m. on some days.

Fox News Digital visited the center the Thursday after Election Day and described a quiet downtown storefront with mirrored windows and a mostly empty lot.

Sixteen licensing hits and a $400 fine

Minnesota DHS licensing records reviewed by Alpha News show Blooming Kids piled up 16 citations across reviews on Oct. 16, 2024; April 30, 2025; and Oct. 2, 2025 — on top of earlier hits. Regulators flagged prohibited discipline of children, staff who “did not supervise the children at all times,” missing background-study paperwork, unclean space, and infants not placed on their backs to sleep. The center was ordered to pay a $400 fine after an employee worked nearly seven months on an expired background study. The license is up for renewal in December. The center is licensed for up to 113 children.

A BBC border quote the campaign would not answer

A 2023 BBC News Somali piece featured Daisane’s wife, Ayaan Kaaba, describing how she crossed the U.S.–Mexico border to join him. An English translation quoted her: “I smuggled myself and jumped over the wall for my love.” The BBC called her “one of hundreds of Somalis who have jumped the US-Mexico border wall.” Alpha News asked the campaign whether that account was accurate. It got no reply.

Daisane lost this same seat to Perryman in 2024. He came back, flipped the open Republican-held district by under 600 votes, and will now help write the laws that police the subsidy programs his own daycare lives on.

What to watch: whether Ellison’s ongoing PIN “site operator” probes touch Blooming Kids; the center’s December license renewal; and whether House Fraud Prevention follows the $7.29 million CCAP trail now that its owner holds a gavel-adjacent seat.