When U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar quietly threw her weight behind Minnesota State Sen. Omar Fateh for mayor of Minneapolis, it should have set off alarm bells for anyone who believes in clean, accountable government. Omar’s endorsement was public and enthusiastic, and it instantly elevated Fateh from a local progressive insurgent to a front-runner in a city desperate for competent leadership. The voters deserve to know what they’re being asked to hand the keys of a major American city to.
Fateh is not a moderate; he’s proudly aligned with the democratic socialist wing of the party, and his rapid rise inside the DFL machine was dramatic and divisive. The Minneapolis DFL convention initially endorsed Fateh, a rare rebuke to an incumbent mayor, but the state party later revoked that endorsement after reviewing substantial failures in the convention’s voting and credentialing process. That reversal exposed chaos inside the DFL and raised serious questions about how the party runs its affairs and who it protects.
Local investigative reporting then began to do what national outlets too often won’t: dig into the actual record. A KARE 11 investigation found that Fateh introduced legislation that would have shifted approval authority for a lucrative Medicaid-linked housing program at a time when his wife was listed as an owner of a business operating in that space, a fact that raises obvious conflict-of-interest concerns. Even if the company didn’t end up billing Medicaid, ethical lines matter, and the timing and lack of disclosure demanded answers from Fateh and his backers.
This isn’t Fateh’s first brush with messy politics. He returned donations tied to the Feeding Our Future fraud probe and faced a state Senate ethics review in 2022 over undisclosed campaign advertising and other irregularities, matters that were serious enough to require campaign finance training and leave lingering questions. Minnesotans who want honest leadership should be alarmed by a pattern of dubious relationships between public office and private gain.
So when local outlets started exposing these connections, some on the left cried betrayal, as if accountability itself were a crime. But hardworking Americans know the truth: journalism that uncovers corruption protects our republic, and any politician who asks for power while sitting on a stack of unanswered ethics questions should expect scrutiny. If Ilhan Omar believes in lifting up her community, she should welcome transparency, not reflexive cover-ups.
Let’s be frank — endorsements matter, and influential congresswomen shouldn’t casually crown candidates who have glaring conflicts on their record. Omar’s brand of identity politics and solidarity with far-left causes means she owes voters an explanation for why she backed a candidate with an ethics cloud hanging over him. Minneapolis families don’t need virtue signaling from Washington; they need mayors who put safety, fiscal responsibility, and common-sense ethics ahead of ideology.
This is a moment for Minnesotans and all Americans to reject the insider games of the political class. Voters should demand debates, full disclosure, and independent audits of any candidate’s past dealings before trusting them with municipal budgets and public safety. The real patriotism right now is defending the integrity of our institutions against cozy arrangements and partisan cover-ups.
If Ilhan Omar and her allies want to keep setting the agenda, fine — but they must accept that exposure and accountability are part of politics in a free country. Conservatives and independents alike should press for clean governance, strict conflict-of-interest rules, and leaders who put constituents first, not personal or political networks. Minneapolis deserves better than political theater and recycled scandals dressed up as progressive transformation.
