Just over a year ago, drawn by Donald Trump’s economic promises and conservative stance on social issues, Badal Kariye was one of a growing number of Somali Americans who voted Republican in the presidential election.
Now with Trump in office, many are struggling as much — or more — with the cost of living. The Minnesota Somali community also finds itself targeted by Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric and is caught in the crosshairs of an aggressive immigration crackdown.
Badal, who says he is not a strongly partisan voter, regrets his choice.
“I was tired of the Democrats’ empty promises, so I wanted to try something new,” he said. “Now we are in what I call an economic meltdown.”
Because he is a U.S. citizen, Badal said ICE arrests don’t affect him personally. But he acknowledges that policies he supported have been turned against his own community.
“What bothers me the most is that the president is wrong, and no one in his Cabinet can correct him, because if they do, they will lose their jobs before the day is over. So, to protect their jobs, they have to agree with everything the president says,” he said.
Minnesota’s Somali community is still largely Democratic, but in the 2024 presidential election, it made a notable shift toward the GOP. A 2024 survey by the Bayan Research Center found that nationally, about 23% of Somali American respondents said they planned to vote for Trump, while 55% backed the Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
Precinct-level results from Minneapolis neighborhoods with large Somali populations, including Cedar-Riverside, showed Democratic support dropped by about 14 percentage points compared with 2020, according to the Star Tribune.
That shift was driven by frustration with the Democrats over issues including crime, education, the war on Gaza, and what some voters viewed as a lack of political inclusion. For at least some Somalis who voted Republican, Trump’s promise to end foreign wars, the party’s effort to end abortion, its promises to be tough on crime and drugs, and support of parental control over education have seemed to align more with their religious and cultural values.
But Trump’s harsh rhetoric, including calling Somali immigrants “garbage,” and the immigration crackdown have prompted some to reconsider their support. Somali voters like Kariye are questioning not only their support for Trump but their place within the Republican Party.
Several Somali Republican voters attended the party’s town hall meeting Dec. 10 at Wayzata Central Middle School that included Republican U.S. Senate candidate Royce White and gubernatorial candidate Phillip Parrish. The Somali Americans raised questions about why the Republican Party is targeting the Somali community after Somalis helped get Trump elected.
Salman Fiqy, a former GOP candidate and organizer who campaigned alongside Trump and helped get hundreds of Somalis to vote Republican, was among them. He said he did not vote and campaign for the party, only to have it target his community.
They got no sympathy from White, who was asked whether now that he was running for office he was willing to retract a previous statement calling for mass deportation of Somalis.
He responded, “I don’t really retract statements; I would rather die before I retract statements, and I think the deportation must begin.”
This caused outrage amongst the Somali Republicans at the event. Faisal Deri, a long-time Republican, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained a young woman in his extended family in Edina. He came to the event to demand answers as to why the party that he supported was coming for his community.
White pushed back, justifying ICE’s actions by claiming that Somali people are either illegal or obtain their immigration status unlawfully.
He argued that ICE has to make arrests first, and if those arrested turn out to be U.S. citizens, they would be released.
Nationwide, multiple reports indicate that at least a few U.S.-born children have been deported along with their parents, although the government disputes the circumstances. ProPublica also reported that 170 U.S. citizens had been detained by immigration agents. “They have been kicked, dragged, and detained for days,” it said. ACLU Minnesota reported that ICE has detained people for as long as 11 months.
White also attacked Somali-American U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., echoing Trump in repeating a rumor common on rightwing blogs that she had married her brother to gain U.S. citizenship. Omar has denied that, and the fact-checking organization Snopes, which investigated the rumor, regards it as unfounded.
“If Ilhan Omar married her brother to get citizenship, and she is your leader, that means most of you get your citizenship by fraud,” White said. He repeatedly called Omar a “scumbag,” garnering applause from most of the 40 people there. The four Somali Americans responded differently, some uneasily shifting in their seats.
Sahan Journal reached out to the Republican Party of Minnesota but did not get a comment ahead of publication.
Neither the criticism nor the second-guessing matter to diehard Trump supporter Mohamed Ahmed. He is a self-employed communication consultant who said he believes Trump will be good for the country in the long run.
“Republicans promise me economic freedom, family values and fewer government regulations; that’s why I always vote Republican, even if that leads to mass deportations,” Mohamed said.
He blamed the current economic uncertainty and foreign wars on former President Joe Biden and echoed Trump’s claims of having made multiple peace deals.
But Ahmed Mohamed, a shop owner at Karmel Mall, said that during the many years he had lived in this country, he had never felt the need to carry his passport until now.
He said many Somali businesses sell Somali ethnic products, meaning these businesses depend on Somali customers, but now that many people are afraid to leave their homes, the businesses are suffering.
While he didn’t vote Republican, he says he knows many Somali people who did.
“These people voted for Trump so he can stop abortion and ensure the schools don’t teach sex education to minors,” he said. “But now we face a major problem as ICE continues to drag people off the streets.”
