During a press conference on June 1, Nasri Warsame said he was staying in the race for the Ward 10 council seat after the Minnesota DFL Party banned him from seeking their endorsement. Warsame is running against Ward 10 Councilmember Aisha Chughtai.

“My decision to enter this race was driven by my deep concern for the safety and well-being of residents in Ward 10,” Warsame said.

The Minnesota DFL Party passed bylaws on March 30 thatbar Warsame from the DFL endorsement. One of the bylaws states that an individual seeking the DFL endorsement will be “immediately and permanently” disqualified if that individual or supporters of their campaign have “engaged in, incurred or consciously condoned physical assault, threats of violence, or violent acts while actively campaigning or participating in any function of the DFL Party.”

During the Ward 10 DFL endorsement convention on May 13, people with Warsame’s campaign stormed the stage and stopped Ward 10 Aisha Chughtai from giving her nomination speech. Warsame was scheduled to give his nomination speech after Chughtai. Multiple people with Warsame’s campaign confronted DFL Party volunteers on stage and the meeting was suspended due to the chaos. In the video, Warsame is shown standing against a wall, watching people storm the stage.

At the June 1 press conference, Warsame expressed regret over what happened at the Ward 10 DFL convention.

“Violence has no place in our political discourse,” Warsame said. “And I sincerely apologize to anyone who was affected by those events.”

Warsame said the DFL Party put the blame on his campaign without an investigation.

“They have made sweeping accusations, placing the responsibility squarely on my shoulders and those of my supporters,” Warsame said.

Warsame also said the Minnesota DFL Party made this decision without talking with Warsame or his campaign and claimed Minnesota DFL Party Chair Ken Martin blamed his campaign for the violence during the Ward 10 convention without talking to anyone on his team.

At the press conference, Warsame said his supporters thought there was “collusion between the DFL and my opponent’s team” at the Ward 10 convention.

“From the beginning to the end, there was a lot of confusion,” Warsame said, of the convention. “The translation part was also confusing to my people. They should have had a Somali representative to demystify the process to the voters.”

According to the DFL Party, there was a Somali translator at the Ward 10 convention but that they left the convention early after being threatened and harassed by convention attendees.

When a reporter at the press conference pressed Warsame on this, Warsame said it was “bogus."

“There was a translation misunderstanding,” Warsame said. Then, Warsame abruptly switched to talking in Somali for a few minutes without any translation, ending his time taking questions.

Warsame’s campaign manager, Abshir Omar, later translated for a Somali elder, Khalif Ali Shire, who felt disenfranchised by the DFL’s decision. Omar was a consultant for Tasho, a non-profit implicated in the Feeding Our Future scandal, in which the federal government was defrauded of $240 million in pandemic relief funds. Omar has not been charged with any crimes related to Feeding Our Future.

Unlike other candidates running for City Council, Warsame has still not filed any campaign finance report. The State of Minnesota requires any campaign that raises or spends more than $750 to file a campaign finance report and continue filing them until they submit  a final report for their campaign. City council candidate finance reports are available on the City of Minneapolis website.