Minnesota Lt. Gov. and Democratic Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan is set to attend a fundraiser hosted by an individual who has served as the states Medicaid medical director during a time period where Medicaid fraud exploded onto the national scene.
Dr. Nathan Chomilo has served as Minnesotas Medicaid medical director since January 2020 and is listed as one of the hosts of an October 1 fundraiser supporting Flanagan, first reported by Townhalls Dustin Grage.
Much of Minnesotas broader fraud scandal has centered on Medicaid-funded programs, including autism services and Housing Stabilization Services, and although Chomilo was not the official responsible for processing payments, investigating fraud or overseeing the departments program-integrity operations, the optics of Flanagan associating with him is sparking skepticism about Flanagan’s commitment to tackling the fraud issue.
“Apparently, the people who were supposed to be watching the money are too busy raising it for Peggy Flanagan,” Grage posted on X. “This should raise some serious red flags.”
“Things that make you go hmm⦠,” Chuck Darrell, former communications director at Minnesota Family Council posted on X.
“The number one thing going on with Minnesota’s Medicaid program has been fraud over the last eight years of the Walz Flanagan administration,” Minnesota Republican State Rep. Kristin Robbins told Fox News Digital. “So he must have been aware. He must have known and clearly he had oversight responsibilities. He probably should have been held accountable for what was going on in the program and instead he’s raising money for Penny Peggy Flanigan.”
“It just shows her disdain for the taxpayers,” Robbins, the chair of the last legislative sessions Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee, continued, adding that Flanagan has “shown time and again disdain for Minnesotans who aren’t on board with her radical agenda and this is just another example of that.”
Chomilo was highlighted in an online profile in 2023, as warning signs were surfacing about potential Medicaid fraud in the state, as a healthcare professional who was focused on ” incorporating community collaboration and racial equity into Minnesotas Medicaid policy development.”
“Communities experiencing inequities in health and opportunity due to structural racism know what they need but often policymakers fail to incorporate their lived experience,” Chomilo said. “By prioritizing policy development through a racial equity lens and implementing it through a community co-created process, Minnesota Medicaid is building racial equity into the core of the health care system. “
On his LinkedIn page, Chomilo has called for ICE to be defunded, promoted a boycott of Target for ending DEI, and lamented ” Zionism in medicine today” in a recent Instagram post.
Robbins told Fox News Digital that “clearly” Flanagan is “aligning herself with the most radical wing of the Democratic party on health care and that is what she will bring to the US Senate.”
Nick Puglia, National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Regional Press Secretary told Fox News Digital in a statement, “Peggy Flanagan let fraudsters steal at least $9 billion from Minn
