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NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! As New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani soaks up nationwide news coverage, Fox News Digital spoke to a Republican congressional candidate in Minnesota who made the case that the Minneapolis mayoral race is equally important and involves similar candidates. "Minneapolis has really become a mini New York," Dalia Al-Aqidi, an Iraqi American Muslim who is running against Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, told Fox News Digital. "The thing is because Mamadani is taking or is getting all the attention from the media from everywhere. People aren't paying that much attention to what's happening here in Minneapolis." What’s happening in Minneapolis, Al-Aqidi says, is a "dangerous" movement by Democratic Socialists of America to advance economic and public safety policies in line with Mamdani’s platform in New York City. SOCIALIST DEM MAYORAL CANDIDATE KNOCKED OVER FOREIGN-LANGUAGE RALLY AS HE LOSES KEY ENDORSEMENT "If you follow what Zohran Mamdani has been saying, that's exactly a copy and paste from what Omar Fateh is saying, and if you criticize any of his policies, and any of his ideas for mayor to a small city like Minneapolis, then you are a racist, then you're anti-Muslim, then you are anti-immigrant and so forth," Al-Aqidi explained. "That victimhood, the master of victimhood is Ilhan Omar, and now Omar Fateh is surpassing her." Al-Aqidi referenced the devastating riots in Minneapolis during the summer of 2020 after George Floyd’s death, hollowing out chunks of the city’s urban infrastructure that have gone along with poor public school test scores, and an understaffed police force. "We're going to suffer more if Omar Fateh wins," Al-Aqidi said. LEFTIST CLUB SMEARS CHARLIE KIRK ON CAMPUS FLYERS SPOTTED AHEAD OF THEIR EVENT HONORING GEORGE FLOYD INSTEAD Al-Aqidi pointed to a recent article from American Experiment revealing campaign finance records that show large chunks of money coming to the Fateh campaign from out-of-state donors, making the case that Fateh and the DSA don’t represent the views of most Minneapolis voters. "The handouts," Al-Aqidi responded when asked by Fox News Digital to explain Fateh’s popularity. "He wants to establish government grocery stores. He wants to have a bigger government inside the city to help people, to give them everything, to control them. And that would hurt small businesses, that would push investments away, that would lead to the loss of jobs. That's what they like about him." Fateh, born in the United States to Somali immigrant parents, faced criticism this week after a viral video showed him waving a Somali state flag at a rally while alternating between English and Somali, presumably addressing a Somali crowd in Minneapolis where a substantial Somali population resides. "Minneapolis: You can’t let this lunatic run your city! He hates our country," GOP House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who represents Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, posted on X. Fateh responded to criticism of the clip in a post on X saying, "Republicans are getting really scared because they know we have a real shot of winning this election. This type of hateful rhetoric won’t deter us from fighting for a more affordable and accountable Mpls." Al-Aqidi, an immigrant from Iraq, also took issue with the clip, saying that waving a foreign flag in any other part of the world would be frowned upon and that Fateh "taints immigrants" when he does that. "They are showing America that immigrants have loyalty, their loyalties are something else, somewhere else instead of the loyalty to the country that we've been living in. I am an immigrant, and I am an Iraqi American, can you imagine if I waved the Iraqi flag, what would the Democrats say or do? I'll go viral," Aqidi said. Aquidi continued, "It's bad for the legal immigrants, for the real people that came to the United States running away from policies like socialist policies and oppression to this country. These people are tainting me as an immigrant. These people tainten my reputation as a Muslim. I love this country, I want to run to be part of the government here to help people, not to help any other country not to implement a foreign agenda. This is what bothers me the most about this i mean nobody's telling any immigrant that you have to abandon your culture or, on the contrary, embrace your culture, embrace where you came from. However, adapt your new home because you chose, you wanted and you begged, or you came here illegally to live here for a reason. So don't bring it back. Be loyal to this land because you're part of it." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital reached out to the Fateh campaign for comment. Fateh, a member of the Minnesota state Senate, is running for mayor of Minneapolis on Tuesday in a ranked choice race against several candidates, including the city’s current Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey. Fateh, a Muslim, has earned strong support from the large Somali community in Minneapolis while promoting a Democratic Socialist agenda, leading some to dub him the "Mamdani of Minneapolis." Fateh has committed to raising the city's minimum wage, increasing the supply of affordable housing and combating what he calls police violence. Similar to Mamdani, Fateh has called for replacing some of the police department's duties with community-led alternatives. He also wants to issue legal IDs to illegal immigrants.
