Democrat Graham Platner Marched with Somali Activist Tied to Nonprofit Accused of Fraud To Show ‘Solidarity’ With Minnesota’s Scandal-Plagued Somali Community
By: Chuck Ross
Washington Free Beacon
January 6, 2026
Controversial Senate candidate Graham Platner (D., Maine), hoisting a “Solidarity” sign and protest fist, marched with Maine Somalis last month to show support for Minnesota’s Somali community, which has been implicated in a staggering fraud scandal. Ironically, one of Platner’s comrades at the event, Safiya Khalid, served as a top official at a Maine nonprofit under investigation for defrauding the state out of millions of dollars in health care payments.
Platner, who is running in a hotly contested primary race for the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R.), was the marquee headliner of a Dec. 13 event in Lewiston organized by Khalid, 30, a headscarf-wearing, Somali-born former leader at Gateway Community Services Maine. Platner—a self-described communist who once sported a neo-Nazi tattoo and is under fire for offensive online comments he made about black and gay people—marched alongside Khalid and spoke at a rally of Somali-American residents, labor leaders, and political activists.
“Safiya, thank you. All of us would not be here without your organizing skills,” said Platner. “We are in your debt.”
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Khalid, who’s been compared to far-left congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) at an earlier career stage, organized last month’s rally in Lewiston in response to what she said was Trump’s “targeting of Somali Americans.” It came after Trump had weighed in on a fraud ring led largely by Somali-American nonprofit groups in Minnesota that defrauded the state out of billions of dollars in food program and health services payments. Federal prosecutors believe the Somali-linked scams may have stolen half of the $18 billion Minnesota received since 2018 for various government programs. The ballooning scandal was behind embattled Gov. Tim Walz’s (D.) announcement Monday that he will not seek a third term next year.
Gateway Community Services Maine, where Khalid worked from 2019 to 2022, is facing allegations of financial misdeeds similar to the fraud in Minnesota. Congressional and federal authorities launched investigations last month into Gateway Community Services Maine, a nonprofit that provides “wraparound services”—health care, job search, and social services—to immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers.
The state of Maine has also probed Gateway’s finances, discovering more than $662,000 in overpayments through the Maine Department of Health and Human Services from 2015 to 2018, according to local reports.
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While Platner has more recently cozied up to people at the epicenter of the potential fraud, the scandal is also likely to ensnare the frontrunner in the Senate primary, Gov. Janet Mills (D.).
Mills, who is running against Platner and several other Mainers, has been photographed with Ali, the Gateway Community founder, the Maine Wire reported. Ali, a Somali-American, drew scrutiny, beyond allegations of financial misdeeds, over his failed campaign last year for president of Jubaland, a violence-torn, semi-autonomous region of Somalia. According to the Maine Wire, Ali bragged in interviews in Somalia that he bankrolled an armed militia to depose Jubaland’s leader.
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