Somali Candidate Eyes Milestone in US Race
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — In a neighborhood dubbed "Little Mogadishu," Mohamud Noor can't walk more than a block without being stopped by someone who wants to shake his hand.
Juggling two cell phones and a stack of campaign fliers, he chats them up on his bid for a seat in Minnesota's House of Representatives. They already know. He's one of theirs.
"You're going to succeed, keep on going," Noor said, translating the encouraging words of an elderly Somali woman.
Noor, 36, has been door-knocking, phone-banking and fundraising in a race that could make him the first Somali-born state lawmaker in the U.S. With the backing of many in the city's growing Somali-American population, Noor is pressing the longtime incumbent Democrat in a hotly contested primary.
Minnesota has become home to an estimated 30,000 Somalis who began fleeing civil war in their homeland a generation ago, drawn here by welcoming churches and social services. Many have settled in Minneapolis in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, where ethnic restaurants, markets and shops huddle in the shadow of massive high-rise apartment buildings.
So established is the community that members are rising in politics, with Somali-Americans capturing a Minneapolis school board seat in 2010 and a Minneapolis City Council seat last year. A win by Noor in November could add another milestone. Somali-American leaders said they know of no other state legislators.
Noor narrowly lost a race for state Senate in 2011. But he has raised about twice as much money for this campaign and hopes that running in the smaller House district, where about a fourth of the residents are foreign-born, could make a difference.
Noor is taking aim at Rep. Phyllis Kahn, 77, who has been in office for 42 years and routinely crushes opponents by 50 points or more.
A liberal Democrat, she touts her seniority and position atop the committee that controls arts and environmental funding. Among her top achievements, she lists the nation's first indoor smoking restrictions passed in 1975.
Noor's asset is Somalia. ...
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