Leader-Telegram
Friday April 8, 2022
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BARRON — Twenty-five years after the first Somali refugees
arrived in Barron, Isaak Mohamed has been elected to a seat on the City
Council.
The 37-year-old native of Somalia earned 179 votes in
Tuesday’s election to defeat incumbent Maureen “Mo” Tollman, who received 51
votes in the race to represent Barron’s District 3.
Mohamed’s victory makes him the first Somali American to win
a seat on the Barron City Council and, he believes, the first Somali American
elected official in Wisconsin history.
“It’s a big thing for our community,” Mohamed said. “It
shows that we can do it, that we can give back.”
The groundbreaking victory didn’t come easily, however.
Mohamed ran unsucessfully for a council seat in 2019 and 2020 before this
week’s third time was finally the charm.
In addition to knocking on a lot of doors, making many calls
and running an active campaign on Facebook, Mohamed never let his previous
defeats dampen his desire to serve his adopted hometown. He works as Barron
school district Somali liaison and serves as a northwest Wisconsin
representative on Gov. Tony Evers’ Health Equity Council.
“Though I was a leader in my community, I still wanted to
represent them in local government,” Mohamed said. “I still wanted to give back
to my community and this great nation.”
Mohamed has been extremely involved in the community. Beyond
working with children in the schools, he has served as a translator for the
Barron Police Department and several other local agencies, aided recent
refugees through the Barron Somali Community Association, worked in human
resources at Jennie-O, led workshops to teach Somali language and culture to
teachers and staff in Barron schools and volunteered to organize and coach
multiple youth sports teams and tournaments in the city.
“Losing didn’t stop me from doing the work that my community
needed,” Mohamed said. “I am a person who always wants to reach his dream, and my
dream was one time to represent my community.”
Mohamed, who will be sworn into office April 19, lived in
Somalia until 2006, when he fled the East African nation’s violence to live in
a refugee camp in Uganda. He earned a social work degree in Uganda before
spending several years there providing humanitarian aid for agencies including
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He arrived in Barron in 2013
and became a U.S. citizen in 2018.
While Somalis gradually have integrated into the Barron
community over time, their involvement had not extended to city government —
until now.
Mohamed’s election has potential to further improve race
relations that already have come a long way in the city.
“I do feel like (Somali Americans) are well integrated, but
any step to bridge any remaining gap will be a big help for the city,”
Rasmussen said.
While he is excited about his new role, Mohamed acknowledged
he is disappointed it took so long for a Somali American to win elected office
in Barron, where the roughly 850 Somali residents account for about a quarter
of the city’s population.
“I would say it’s late. It should have happened a long time
ago,” he said. “The state of Wisconsin needs more inclusion in government.”
The breakthrough is important for the city’s Somali American
residents because it will give them more of a say in the community and offer
them a representative who understands their language, culture and concerns,
said Mohamud Farah of Barron.
Farah, a Somali American who works as an interpreter for
Mayo Clinic Health System in Barron, said Mohamed has long been the Somali
American community’s go-to person for information, and that role should only
increase after he takes his seat on the council.
“It’s very exciting to have a voice for the community to
help the community,” Farah said. “Isaak will inform people about things coming
up and things we can participate in.”
Mohamed, whose top priorities include addressing Barron’s
affordable housing shortage and creating more youth programs in the city, said
the students he works with at school were excited to learn that a Somali person
is going to hold public office. It was eye-opening for them to learn about the
possibilities available to them, he added.
Though Mohamed looks forward to serving as a bridge to
connect the Somali community with the rest of its Barron neighbors, he stressed
that his commitment extends to the entire city.
“I’m a person who wants to represent and serve everybody who
lives in Barron,” Mohamed said. “I’m for Barron.”