[3] Warsame first entered politics in 2011, while working on Mohamud Noor's campaign for a state Senate seat on a DFL ticket.

The group lobbied the Minneapolis Charter Commission to redraw the municipality's political districts so as to maximize the East African community's vote.

His campaign finance filings put him among the top tier of successful fundraisers in Minneapolis' 13 wards.

[10] Just before the election, the political action committee of Palestinian real estate developer Basim Sabri, who had a personal feud with Lilligren, produced controversial fliers smearing Lilligren and asserting that he discriminated against minorities, the elderly, and the poor.

It also indicated that Sabri and his action group were unaffiliated with the Vote Warsame For Ward 6 campaign and were instead acting out of their own volition.

[10] On November 5, 2013, Warsame was elected to represent the predominantly East-African Ward 6 on the Minneapolis City Council.

[1][12] Warsame's election set civic precedence in the Somali American community of Minneapolis, in which his campaign energized and mobilized this sub-community's powerful voting bloc.

[15] He resigned from his City Council seat on March 30 of that year to take the new position, the first Somali person to lead one of Minnesota's public agencies.