MINNEAPOLIS – Rep. Ilhan Omar got a Democratic primary challenger Sunday when former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels announced he would try again to unseat him after a close run in 2022.
Omar, a charter member of the progressive House Democratic “squad,” won re-election twice despite making comments in his first term that were widely criticized for using antisemitic tropes and suggesting American Jews had divided loyalties.
But Omar – a Somali American and Muslim – has come under fresh fire for condemning the Israeli government’s handling of its war against Hamas.
“Our congressmen have a penchant for division and conflict,” Samuels said in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of his official announcement Sunday morning on WCCO Radio.
Jamaican Samuels still maintains that his narrow defeat in 2022 shows Omar is beatable, and that he could win if they ran later in the general election, where Omar won 74% of the vote over a lesser-known Republican.
A big issue in 2022 is the future of policing in the city where George Floyd was killed in 2020 by a former Minneapolis police officer, which touched off protests around the world and riots in Minnesota.
Omar was among the progressives who blasted former President Barack Obama for criticizing the “reject the police” movement as a “simplistic slogan.”
Minneapolis City Councilman Don Samuels announced that he is running against Rep. Ilhan Omar in the Democratic primary.AP Photo/Steve Karnowski
“It is not a slogan but basic demands,” he wrote on Twitter, now known as X.
Instead, the centrist Samuels helped lead the opposition that defeated a proposal on the city ballot in 2021 that arose out of the “defund” movement and would have replaced the police force with a revamped public safety agency. Samuels thinks safety will be a major issue again.
“The long tail of the George Floyd and COVID issues continues, with empty storefronts and empty shopping centers because people don’t want to invest anymore. They don’t think it’s safe,” Samuels said.
Omar released a written statement Sunday touting his work in Congress and for his district, including fighting to fight climate change and codifying abortion rights.
Omar has come under fire for his criticism of Israel’s war against Hamas.AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File
He also noted his role in securing affordable housing for veterans in Minnesota and public safety measures that provide support and mental health services for victims of gun violence.
“Right-wing donors have targeted me since I first entered public life,” Omar said in the statement, which also accused Samuels of taking hundreds of thousands in donations from right-wing donors and political action committees. “If we’re going to stop Donald Trump, we need record turnout, and I’m confident in our ability to drive turnout, especially in a presidential election year.”
The war in the Middle East has divided Democrats and upended the dynamics of several House primaries. Omar has criticized Hamas for attacking Israel and taking hostages – but more so the Israeli military’s response. The focus is the plight of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
He was too curse the surge intimidation and violence against both Muslim and Jewish targets in the US
Samuels claims that Omar has a “tendency to division and conflict.” AP Photo/Steve Karnowski
It remains to be seen how strong the war issue will be in heavily Democratic districts including Minneapolis and several suburbs. The district also has a large Somali Muslim population.
And it includes St. Louis, which has historically been the center of Jewish life in Minnesota.
Samuels said he believes war will be a big concern.
He criticized Omar for voting against imposing sanctions on Russia over its aggression in Ukraine but supporting sanctions against Israel, and for boycotting Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s speech to Congress in July.
“He has terrified the Jewish community,” Samuels said, adding that the community “understands that there is a latent, hidden antisemitic sentiment that always needs to be discouraged, and always in times of national crisis rears its ugly head.”
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has been actively trying to recruit a credible challenger to Omar. That drew pushback from a staunch supporter of Israel, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who issued a public endorsement for Omar this summer.
A super PAC affiliated with AIPAC is spending about $350,000 against Omar in 2022. But Samuels said AIPAC is not trying to recruit him.
Omar’s fellow House Democrats have described him as a serious lawmaker who in the past four years has won admiration for giving voice to marginalized groups often forgotten on Capitol Hill.
But Samuels said people sometimes “mistaken his oppositional nature and divisive nature as someone speaking truth to power when he’s actually abusing his power, or not using his power, to make a difference.”
Other declared candidates are relatively unknown. One Democrat is Sarah Gad, a Minneapolis attorney and daughter of Egyptian Muslim immigrants.
The other is military veteran Tim Peterson. The only Republican currently running is Dalia Al-Aqidi, an Iraqi American journalist and a secular Muslim who describes Omar as pro-Hamas and a terrorist sympathizer.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
