What’s happening in Minnesota should send shockwaves through the entire country. A leading Democratic candidate for mayor of Minneapolis — Omar Fateh — is openly running a campaign that does not even bother to address Americans in English.
At recent rallies, footage shows Fateh surrounded by supporters wearing shirts and stickers bearing his name. The language spoken throughout the entire event? Somali. Not one word of English. Not one attempt to reach the broader public he claims to want to govern.
This isn’t an oversight. It’s a statement. Fateh has already posted campaign materials exclusively in Somali and pledged that his “top priority” as mayor would be to fight against the Trump administration — the very government he’s seeking to serve under. His agenda centers not on Minneapolis residents as a whole, but on protecting illegal immigrants, whom he portrays as victims of America itself.
Even more alarming, Fateh has labeled White Republicans in America as “terrorists.” This is not the language of a candidate seeking to unify a city. It is the rhetoric of division, imported straight from the identity politics of a foreign-first movement that now feels emboldened enough to flaunt its agenda in broad daylight.
Minnesota has seen this pattern before. Large-scale Somali immigration to the state has produced politicians who govern as if their first loyalty lies to the African nation above America. Representative Ilhan Omar is the most obvious example — but Fateh’s rallies suggest we are witnessing the next stage. A full embrace of a “Somali-first” platform, conducted in a language many Minnesotans do not even understand.
Ask yourself: what does it mean for democracy when a candidate for mayor holds rallies in a foreign language, effectively excluding vast swaths of the population from even understanding his message? What does it mean when a candidate openly declares war on the federal government while seeking to run one of America’s largest cities?
This is more than unusual. It is dangerous. It signals a willingness by Democratic leaders to elevate foreign-first politicians who do not even pretend to put America — or Americans — first.
Minnesotans deserve leaders who speak to them, not around them. They deserve candidates whose loyalty is to the people of Minneapolis, not to a foreign identity that supersedes American values. The fact that this rally happened — in plain sight, with no English spoken — should be a wake-up call to every voter in the state and beyond.