Meet Nadia Mohamed, St. Louis Park's newly elected mayor and first Somali councilmember

CATHY WURZER: There are a few Minnesota cities that will have new leadership in 2024. In Duluth, former state lawmaker Roger Reinert defeated two-term incumbent Emily Larson with nearly 60% of the vote. In a celebration last night at the Clyde Ironworks, he told supporters he wanted to have a smooth transition.

ROGER REINERT: I just want to see the city do city things again. And we will do city things again. That is what local government is about.

CATHY WURZER: By the way, we're going to talk to Mayor-elect Reinert later in the show, around 12:30. Two other cities will also have new mayors. In Golden Valley, the race is still too close to call, but Roslyn Harmon is leading Gillian Rosenquist by just 26 votes. If Harmon wins, she will be the city's first Black mayor.

In Saint Louis Park, voters elected Nadia Mohamed to be their next mayor. She was a Saint Louis Park City Council member. And at 27 years old, she becomes the nation's first elected Somali-American mayor. She received more than 58% of the vote, compared to opponent Dale Anderson's 41%. She addressed supporters at Westwood Hills Nature Center in a speech recorded by KARE 11.

NADIA MOHAMED: This election is, of course, a momentous one, as we already know. And I am truly grateful for the opportunity to lead our great city. Thank you.

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CATHY WURZER: Mayor-elect Nadia Mohamed joins us. Welcome to the program, and congratulations.

NADIA MOHAMED: Thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you for having me.

CATHY WURZER: I can't imagine you slept much at all last night. What are you thinking-- what are you thinking about today?

NADIA MOHAMED: How grateful I am. You are right, I did not sleep. I'm covered in dark eyes, so it's just kind of-- but I'm super excited. And I am really grateful for the voters of Saint Louis Park, for the residents of Saint Louis Park, for putting their trust and faith in me.

CATHY WURZER: You grew up in Saint Louis Park. You know the city. What was the key to victory for you?

NADIA MOHAMED: Yeah, I think the key to victory is letting people know that I did grow up in Saint Louis Park, that I grew up here for 18 years. I went to school here. I graduated from the high school. And that I have always been active in organizing in our community and making sure that our members, our residents, are being connected with each other and being connected with the city. And so it also didn't hurt that some of the well-known Saint Louis Park residents, whether it's elected officials or community members, were supporting me and were cheering me on.

CATHY WURZER: You were the youngest city council member and now the youngest mayor to be elected in Saint Louis Park. And I'm focusing on your youth here for just a moment. I want to know, how is your youth an asset to what you'd like to do in Saint Louis Park?

NADIA MOHAMED: Yeah, for sure. I think I am-- I want to use my age as a way to show the younger generation that there's opportunity, that there's room for us to speak loud, right? To take up the room and making sure that our voices are being heard, and that whether it's politics, whether it's civic duty, whatever that looks like, that our voices are being heard. That's one thing that I definitely want to highlight. Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: I wonder, then, how do you reach out to perhaps maybe skeptical older residents, who say, look, we've got the wisdom. How will you collaborate with them?

NADIA MOHAMED: Yeah, so my big thing is collaboration. I know that I didn't get here by myself, and I definitely will not accomplish all the things that I want to accomplish by myself. And seeing that we are a community of communities, I also want to make sure that I am hearing from older residents who feel that maybe something is changing, and they don't want it to change, or who feel like housing is getting way too expensive when they're on fixed income. And so all these things that I'm hearing and I'm continuously hearing from people and keeping a close relationship with them so that they are feeling whatever gaps that I may have.

CATHY WURZER: Glad that you brought up housing. It was a big issue in your campaign. What are your plans for making homes more affordable in Saint Louis Park?

NADIA MOHAMED: Yeah, so I know that one of the things that we've looked at is a first generation homeownership program, which just allows pathways for people who are the first in their families to be able to buy a home, to buy a home, right? Whether it's through loans or grants.

I know that as a city, we've also looked at secondary dwellings, duplexes, and just kind of like rezoning in general, or zoning, I should say, in general. And so, we're, as a council, as a community, as neighbors, we want to decide what is best for us as we move forward in the next couple of years, as we know that things are only going to get expensive from here and out. How can we make sure that we're not putting a burden onto our residents?

CATHY WURZER: I was looking through some old newspaper accounts of your city council race four years ago. And back then, you said you wanted to help Saint Louis Park achieve a goal of being carbon neutral by 2040. So now that you're mayor, what does the city need to do to accomplish that?

NADIA MOHAMED: So this is actually-- I'm super excited that you asked this. Climate action is also another one that I'm super passionate about. I know that as a city, Saint Louis Park is usually leading the pack in that in terms of one of our biggest carbon emission comes from businesses and industrial places where it's zoned that way. And so what we have done is get some grants and/or incentives to ensure that they're bringing their carbon emission down, right, and that they're not contributing any further.

We've also done kind of like-- we've done that same thing with residents. We've partnered up with nonprofits to go into our residents' homes and check, like, how can we make this more climate friendly? What can we change? What appliances can we change? What can we change in the house, right? And as I've been door knocking, I've seen a lot of houses that have-- OK, my English is being limited with this one, but who also have the sunroof, right, that allows them to get electricity and not necessarily use electricity.

CATHY WURZER: I see. Yes, so more use of solar panels.

NADIA MOHAMED: Yes, solar panels. That's what I meant to say.

CATHY WURZER: Sure, no, I understood. I'm kind of curious, I just got done talking to John Collins, who, as you probably know, covers Minneapolis City politics. And we were talking about, there's a strong mayor system in Minneapolis. Saint Louis Park a little different, does not have a strong mayor system. So you don't really oversee the city council. But as a former city council member, you you know how the dynamics work. So how might your influence change now that you're moving from the council to the mayor's office?

NADIA MOHAMED: Oh, that's another really good question. I think I get to have both perspectives, right? And so I understand that in order to get the work done, I need to collaborate with my council members, and we need to do it in collaboration. And Saint Louis Park has a really rich history of the mayor and the council working together unanimously to get things done, right? Whether it's passing a budget, whether it's passing ordinances, proclamations, whatever that may be, we do it together and in collaboration and in support of each other.

And even if we're not, even if we have the majority and not necessarily all of the council members, we usually still have the same tone of the majority has decided, we're ready to move on, and we're ready to do it. So I'm really proud to be part of that dynamic team.

CATHY WURZER: So before you go, as I mentioned, you're the first elected Somali-American mayor in the country. I can't even imagine what your family thinks of that. That must be amazing.

NADIA MOHAMED: They are super proud. I think everybody is. Not I think, but definitely I know that everybody is proud and is thrilled for this next chapter of our lives. I will say, though, I think this is a milestone, not a destination. And with our conversation, there's so much to do here. And I want to continue on our success that we've had here in Saint Louis Park, whether it's housing, climate action, equity, and something-- even sidewalks, right? Dedicated bike lanes, all of it. I want to do it in collaboration with each other. And since we are a community of communities, I want to do it with everybody.

CATHY WURZER: All right, we wish you well. Good luck. Thank you so much, and congratulations.

NADIA MOHAMED: Thank you so much. All right, bye-bye.

CATHY WURZER: We've been talking to Saint Louis Park Mayor-elect Nadia Mohamed. Her term begins in January.