Minnesota Dem’s viral hijab video goes from bad to worse as new allegations surface

A viral clip of Peggy Flanagan in a hijab at a Somali market has a second act: the woman beside her, Nimco Ahmed, runs an autism center now under state investigation.

Flanagan introduced Ahmed as a friend of nearly 25 years and defended Minnesota’s Somali community while fraud headlines piled up.

DHS later confirmed Milestone Development Center and Spectrum Therapy Center are under investigation and were cut from Medicaid in the 2026 revalidation, with appeals pending.

Alpha News first reported the probe. A former Milestone therapist alleged missing supervisors, thin documentation, and clients who did not appear to meet diagnostic criteria. Ahmed denied the claims and called the scrutiny bias.

Republicans immediately tied the video to the investigation. Townhall’s Dustin Grage wrote, “You can’t make this stuff up.” LibsofTikTok posted, “It just never ends.”

Flanagan has not been accused of running the center or of filing false claims. The political damage is association: a campaign-season image of solidarity next to an operator now on the state’s radar.

Tafoya is using the episode to argue the Walz administration looked away from fraud in favored networks.

The Senate race was already about welfare-scale theft in Minnesota. The hijab video plus the Medicaid cutoff gave that argument a face and a paper trail.