Arshia Hussain and Yusra Mohamud became friends after connecting at an election debrief following the 2024 presidential election. After that, they ran into each other often at political events such as town halls and community forums with elected officials.
When DFL Sen. Omar Fateh announced his run for mayor of Minneapolis in December 2024, Hussain and Mohamud immediately saw an opportunity to build excitement for a progressive candidate and get younger voters involved.
Propelled by the momentum from Fateh’s campaign, the pair have now formed a political action committee that will support progressive candidates statewide.
Mohamud is a business adviser for the Lake Street Council and a multimedia storyteller. She is Somali American and calls Minneapolis home. Hussain, who is Indian American and lives in Brooklyn Park, is a development and fundraising professional.
While Fateh was campaigning, Mohamud and Hussain knew he could further connect with voters if they saw more of his personality outside elected office: as a husband, a soon-to-be father, and a pretty funny guy.
Fateh had already attracted some young, engaged voters — a demographic that the two knew they could help expand.
Taking their cue from Hot Girls for Zohran, a grassroots group backing now New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani (which has since been renamed Hot Girls Organize), Hussain and Mohamud named their mobilization for Fateh Baddies for Omar.
“We were able to bring an excitement to his campaign and make it more relatable to those who typically wouldn’t vote,” Mohamud said.
They heard from campaign volunteers who were involved in student groups on their campuses about low youth voter engagement and turnout.
“They [Mohamud and Hussain] did a really great job at both boosting a social media presence and at the same time coordinating several events in which we were able to successfully talk to younger voters,” Fateh said in an interview with Sahan Journal.
Hussain said that people who followed them on social media and attended their events in person had fun while talking about issues they were concerned about.
“The first few events we did for Omar when he was running for mayor, people came in there overjoyed. There was a part of organizing that was fun and cool and chic and engaging,” she said.
But after the 2024 presidential election, many people dropped out of political engagement.
“There was a lot of voter apathy; people don’t want to be engaged anymore because we’re just so used to so much disappointment,” Hussain said. “We needed to revitalize those people who were like ‘You know what? I don’t know if I want to do this anymore — the life of politics is not for me.’
“Yes, it is! The life of politics is for everybody. We are all supposed to be civically engaged, and we have a duty to know our community, and this is how we can do that,” she said.
Sagal Ali, a lifelong resident of the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, says from her experience attending their events, Hussain and Mohamud have a knack for translating politics and hyperlocal public policy matters to people who may feel discouraged from actively engaging.
“They’re translating those policies into human impacts and they’re doing it in fun ways, even though the topics and the issues that are being covered are difficult. I think that’s their superpower,” Ali said.
Fateh did not win his mayoral race, but Mohamud and Hussain felt they had started something worthwhile. The attention they garnered from the energy and fun of their online presence was beyond Minnesota, they said — people in London and elected officials from other states said they’d learned about Fateh’s campaign from their social media.
Despite Fateh’s loss, “our campaign for Baddies for Omar was a success. … there were electeds who reached out to us, who wanted us to support and keep the movement going.” Mohamud said.
Shortly after the election, the pair decided to use the momentum they had cultivated to establish a larger engine for progressive values.
In September, Hussain and Mohamud launched the Baddies 4 Progress political action committee (PAC).
“One of the things that rings in my head often was one of Omar’s talking points when he was running for mayor — he was up against five PACs. So then the question in my head was, well, where were the PACs for us?” Hussain said.
“I want the PACs [that] support progressive candidates who are thinking about all of us — our families, our neighbors, our friends, our co-workers.”
Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin, represents parts of Anoka and Hennepin County. Hoffman has known Hussain’s family since she was a child and witnessed her engagement with politics. He says that Baddies 4 Progress helps people understand that being civically engaged is about the collective and brings a new excitement to political action.
“Sharing voter registration deadlines, candidate endorsements, civic participation guides — they’re getting it out there. It’s good outreach,” Hoffman said.
On Monday, Oct. 25, Baddies 4 Progress co-produced an event that featured livestreamer Hasan Piker and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. The event sold out in minutes when Piker and Omar were added to the lineup. At the same time, political leaders including DFL members of the state House and Senate condemned Piker’s appearance because of past remarks considered by some to be antisemitic.
Mohamud and Hussain were surprised by the scale of the criticism about the event. They say it shows a disconnect between many political leaders and young voters.
“I was a little bit stunned because we are going through the most critical times of our country — being in the middle of potentially a global war, the highest prices of gas, the cost of living is through the roof,” Mohamud said.
She said the event was a chance for a Minnesota audience to hear Piker’s observations during his campaign-related travels around the country, and to hear from Rep. Omar ahead of next week’s election.
The event was titled “I’m the Host Now,” a play on a line from a Somali “pirate” in the 2013 film “Captain Phillips.”
The title was chosen because Fateh “really loves the idea of late-night shows like Jimmy Kimmel and ‘Saturday Night Live,’ these fun shows that poke fun at reality but still bring awareness and sit down with real people.”
Hussain and Mohamud say that their online presence has provoked hateful and aggressive behavior and language, “from bots to actual haters,” Hussain said.
Some don’t like “me, Yusra and Omar being the face of [progressive] values. We’re still facing anti-Muslim, anti-Somali [rhetoric] and misogyny,” she said.
Hussain and Mohamud said they value the discipline and process of a PAC because it allows them to transcend the idea that they’re just an Instagram page of girls in organizing. They said the PAC also allows them to fill a void in Minnesota’s political landscape.
Hussain said Baddies 4 Progress will focus on fundraising for local campaigns during the next presidential election, in 2028.
Fateh sees the Baddies 4 Progress team gaining political influence.
“I’ve already seen how they have evolved from a city to a state,” he said. “That’s the vision I have for them: They take their successes in engaging voters, engaging with campaigns, and talking about issues that affect young people, not just in Minneapolis, not just in Minnesota, but nationally.”
