Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar on Tuesday survived a stiff Democratic primary challenge from a well-funded opponent who tried to raise an issue of her national fame.
Their win is the latest in a season of victories by a new generation of emboldened progressive lawmakers.
Omar, who was seeking her second term in November, easily defeated Antone Melton-Meaux, a lawyer and mediator who raised millions to run against her.
Omar and her allies gained confidence in their chances of re-election after primary victories last week by fellow Squad member Rashida Tlaib in Michigan and by Cori Bush, a Black Lives Matter activist who fired a longtime St. Louis area congressman . They also maintained momentum from the renewed focus on racial and economic justice following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“Last night, our movement just didn’t win,” Omar tweeted. “We have a mandate for change. Despite outside efforts to defeat us, we broke records again. Despite the attacks, our support has only grown. ”
Melton-Meaux used the money to paper the district and flood airwaves with his message “Focused on the Fifth” that Omar portrayed as out of contact with the heavily democratic Fifth District of Minneapolis, which has not elected a Republican to Congress since 1960. He admitted defeat and acknowledged that his efforts were not enough, while refusing to speculate as to why.
“I am also incredibly proud of the work we have done, which has received at least more than 60,000 votes from the ward, from people who resonate with our message of effective leadership ground in the ward, and bring people together to get things done. to make, ”Melton-Meaux told The Associated Press.
Omar became one of the first two Muslim women to be elected to Congress in 2018, built on a national profile that began when the one-time refugee from Somalia was elected to the Minnesota Legislature just two years earlier. Her plea for liberal issues, and her boundaries to include Donald Trump, still made her prominent.
Omar rejected the Melton-Meaux attacks, saying they were funded by interests that wanted to get them out of Congress because they were effective. She also downplayed Melton-Meaux’s largest fundraiser for the vote, saying, “Organized people will always beat organized money.”
Democratic U.S. Senator Tina Smith and Republican challenger Jason Lewis easily won their primaries in the only statewide race on the ballot. Elsewhere, in the conservative seventh district of western Minnesota, former state senator Michelle Fischbach won a three-way Republican race for the right to challenge Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson. Peterson, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, is one of the GOP’s top targets for tipping a House chair in November.
After entering Congress with fanfare, Omar promoted controversy with remarks about Israel and money that some fellow Democrats called anti-Semitic, and apologized.
After Floyd’s death, Omar was pressured by a Minneapolis City Council majority to replace the city’s police department with something new. Melton-Meaux did not support that, but supported shifting some funding away from policing to more social service-oriented programs. Both approached the issue in personal ways, with Omar saying she wanted her son to grow up safely. Melton-Meaux, who is also black, told a personal story of arrest while he was at the University of Virginia by police searching for an attacker suspected of having walked into his apartment building.
John Hildebrand, a 47-year-old teacher in Minneapolis who voted for Omar, said her national profile is an advantage.
“I think it is precisely their presence that encourages other Muslims and Somalis to run for office and seek to be represented,” he said. “I think she’s just getting more and more people involved in the political system.”
