Show Notes
The story of welfare fraud in Minnesota keeps getting bigger. And no one in state government has worked harder and longer trying to sound the alarm about it than state Sen. Steve Drazkowski. He joins The Drill Down to discuss the growing evidence of widespread fraud in his state that may include not only welfare and child care fraud but vote fraud as well.
Minn. Gov. Tim Walz, who was the Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee in 2024, just abandoned his bid for a third term in the wake of the growing scandal, which exposed potentially billions of dollars in fraud committed mostly by Somalis in the Minneapolis area through fake feeding programs, daycare centers, and other social programs. Reporters have also identified political contributions to many of the state’s most prominent politicians from Somali immigrants who have been implicated and/or prosecuted in the scams.
None of which is news to Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa), who’s been trying to blow the whistle on the fraud for a decade. Back in 2016, he was sharing evidence of massive fraud — $271 million worth of Medicaid fraud going to “people who were dead, illegal immigrants, and those who didn’t meet the program’s criteria” for coverage,” he tells host Eric Eggers. He warned then of “institutional corruption” in state government. He blames the problems on the state’s one-party rule – Democrats control the governorship, state senate and supreme court – for doing nothing to stop it.
Recently, a 2018 memo from Minnesota’s own welfare fraud inspectors reported that “Investigators, as well as the Supervisor and Manager of this unit believe that the overall fraud rate in this program is at least 50% of the $217M paid to child care centers in CY2017.”
Drazkowski shares one dramatic story: he tells Eggers he was sitting in the state legislature with a Democratic colleague who had legislation to establish an independent inspector general to investigate welfare fraud in the state. While they were discussing the bill, her phone rang. “It was Governor Walz,” she said, and left to take the call. When she returned, she told him, “He wants me to pull my bill.”
Meanwhile, the prosecutions and the revelations continue. The alleged mastermind behind Minnesota’s $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, Aimee Bock, was found guilty in in March by a federal jury of wire fraud, conspiracy and bribery. She is now facing forfeiture of a Porsche, property, designer handbags and millions of dollars after a federal judge approved a preliminary order.
Walz claimed to have been shocked by the revelations of rampant fraud shown by a now-viral video produced by YouTuber Nick Shirley, showing empty daycare facilities in Minneapolis that received millions in state-administered funds. Drazkowski believes that is a lie.
“He was covering it up, from Medicare fraud to daycare fraud to the ‘Feeding Our Future’ fraud,” Drazkowski says, adding that Walz “was very aware of it.”
“They weren’t going to undo his baby,” Drazkowski tells Eggers.
Drazkowski served in the Minnesota House from 2007 until 2023 when he was elected a state senator. Last month, he announced he would not be seeking another term this year when his current term ends. He’s clearly frustrated with the state of politics in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
“A lot of states around us have gone red – the Dakotas, Iowa, and even Wisconsin. Minnesota has been resistant to that,” he says, pointing to the dominance of the Democrat-Farm-Labor party, as it is known there. “It’s a circle. The politicians here believe they’re immune” to criticism.
The fraud in Minnesota may get even worse. This week Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the US Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, requested detailed information about the state’s voter rolls from its secretary of State, Steve Simon. Dhillon’s action suggests she believes voter fraud might be added to the list of problems there. The state may have duplicate voters registered and non-citizens may be voting in its elections. Simon is so far resisting the request, citing the state legislature’s audit commission.
“Simon is a very partisan guy. I served in the house with him,” Drazkowski says. “He’s an ardent, far-left liberal.”
“I sit on the audit commission,” he says. “The Democrats gave him the ability to decide how information is shared. (Simon’s) office has the exclusive ability to see whether someone is here legally or not. They even switched to using taxpayer ID numbers instead of Social Security numbers in order to mask whether a voter had a Social Security number. He is the only person who can discern whether a voter is here legally based on the information in that database,” he adds.
Eggers notes that his own 2018 book, FRAUD, discussed a peculiarity of Minnesota voting law known as “vouching,” which is now receiving scrutiny. In some states, a registered voter can vouch for another voter who did not bring proof of identity to the polls. In Minnesota, that number is unlimited, leading to charges of voting by illegal immigrants.
Drazkowski reminds Eggers of a 2020 investigation by Project Veritas that revealed a ballot harvesting scheme involving absentee and mail-in ballots gathered by Somali clan and political allies of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). A ballot harvester named Liban Mohamed admitted on camera to having a car full of absentee ballots filled out for a city political candidate.
“He admitted to having 300 ballots in the car, all filled out for his brother,” Drazkowski says. He adds that he was among the first “to expose that Ilhan Omar married her brother.”
What does he think Asst. Attorney General Dhillon might find from a review of the state’s voting rolls?
“Illegal aliens and dead people voting,” he answers.
Eggers asks him about Ken Martin, who ran the state Democratic party and now runs the national Democratic Party. Does he believe Martin will attempt the same kinds of things nationally?
“He won’t be able to do nationally what he did in Minnesota,” Drazkowski answers. “His wheels won’t grip the road as tightly.”
