Some Somali voters say economic, social issues are driving them to vote for Trump

Salman Fiqy arrived in Minnesota on a historic day: Jan. 20, 2009, when Barack Obama took office as president. Fiqy, then 19, was excited. “I was a Democrat,” he said.

That changed through the years, as the Somali immigrant earned a biology degree from Minnesota State University, Mankato, pursued a career in medical consulting and started a family. By the time Donald Trump was president, Fiqy had become conservative.

Fiqy, now 35 and living in Burnsville, said he believes that trend is gaining traction in his community. That’s because, he said, Somalis in Minnesota are becoming increasingly middle class. And as Muslims, they’re already culturally conservative.

Many Muslim voters are also fed up with Democrats taking their support for granted, he said. “If you speak to the Muslim community now, they say, ‘This time, I can try conservative,’” Fiqy said.

A day after President Joe Biden’s faltering performance in the June 27 debate, several East African patrons at 24 Somali Mall in south Minneapolis expressed support for Trump in his campaign to return to the the White House.

Many said they’re willing to look past the former president’s previous anti-Muslim rhetoric and temporary ban on travel from six Muslim-majority countries, including Somalia, during his administration. Immigration from Somalia plunged while Trump was in office, when the United States went from granting 1,797 visas to Somali immigrants in 2016 to 464 in 2019.

Voters of color abandoning Democrats in favor of Republican candidates has become a trend, but political scientists offer several caveats. The shift has been marginal, according to University of Minnesota Prof. Christopher Federico, and doesn’t apply to women.

On a recent Friday at the Five Star Barbershop, owner Yasin Ali said his business has been slow for the past few years. “I will vote for Trump because of the economy,” he said. “Two times I voted Democrat. This will be my first time voting Republican.”

Sabiq Hirsi, a 26-year-old truck driver, said he plans to vote for Trump. Business has slumped and gas prices have spiked in the past few years, hurting his bottom line, he said. He said he also opposes sending U.S. aid to Israel in support of its war against Hamas and to Ukraine in its war with Russia.

“Biden is spending billions on wars,” he said. “War wasn’t as crazy when Trump was president.”

Hirsi said he is not persuaded by arguments that the Republican nominee’s harsh rhetoric on immigration and other topics amounts to racism.

“They convinced me the first time when he was running that Trump is a racist and he hates us,” Hirsi said. “Actually, Democrats are bad for the country.”

But he said it’s not just economic issues that are driving his support for the former president. Several Muslim parents have protested LGBTQ policies and books at Twin Cities schools, and Hirsi said he’s concerned about what his two young sons are being taught in the classroom.

“We really don’t have freedom of religion,” he said. “I’m opposed to transgender and LGBT stuff.”

Fiqy, who has two school-age sons, also opposes LGBTQ and gender identity curriculums in the public schools.

“The idea that you can have a different sexual orientation — we feel it is too early for our kids to be indoctrinated with that kind of education,” he said. “They can make a decision later on in their life when they are sound.

“As Muslims, we have always had conservative values, and we’ve been all along preaching conservative values that are similar to the Republican Party.”

Fiqy said he believes that the changing demographics are prompting more in the Somali community to vote Republican. The first Somali immigrants who arrived in Minnesota in the 1990s were refugees, he said, and voted Democratic because they believed the party represented their values. But as their kids grew up and moved up the economic ladder, pro-business perspectives became more attractive to them, he said.

“The next generation is middle class,” Fiqy said. “Their perception has changed because of their economic status, and that plays an important role.”

There’s the question of whether Trump’s harsh rhetoric on immigration harms his appeal to Somalis. During a 2019 rally in Minneapolis, Trump condemned the legacy of Somali refugee resettlement in Minnesota and banned travel by Muslims to the U.S.

“He’s very racist,” said Gulad Abdi, a regular mall patron, who said he plans to vote for Biden this fall — though he expressed concern about the president’s debate performance. “As a Democrat, I want them to find a new candidate,” he said.

Abdi Mohamed, another regular at the mall, said he will vote for Biden. “The other guy is a lunatic,” he said, adding that he doesn’t see support for Trump or Republicans growing among Somali voters.

Some Somali voters said they’re willing to look past Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric. Fatumo Nur voted for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020 but plans to vote for the Republican again this fall. He’s “noisy,” she said of Trump, but “not a bad guy.”

Imam Abdirisak Duale, a longtime Republican activist from East Grand Forks, Minn., called Trump’s previous remarks about Somalis “unfortunate and divisive.”

“While I may not agree with everything he says, I support many of his policies that prioritize national security, economic growth and religious freedom,” Duale said. “It is important to look at the overall impact of his policies.”

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This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for a free newsletter to receive Sahan’s stories in your inbox.