Excerpt:
Anecdotal evidence, exit polls and overall turnout rates indicate Minnesota Somalis voted in high numbers last week.
To leaders and experts, it was a demonstration of political enthusiasm as well as a glimpse of the community’s potential elective power.
The Somali community is getting more politically active and more Somalis are running for public office and winning, including Ilhan Omar, who will be one of the first Muslim women to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
It remains to be seen whether the community can influence statewide elections, said Larry Jacobs, a politics professor at the University of Minnesota — Twin Cities.
He is the director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs.