Ilhan Omar wins Minnesota’s Democratic primary

WASHINGTON

Representative Ilhan Omar won the Democratic primary in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District late Tuesday, defeating former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels.

The significant victory follows the recent defeats of fellow progressive “Squad” members Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, who faced challenges from pro-Israel lobby groups.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its affiliated super political action committee (PAC), the United Democracy Project, poured millions of dollars into efforts to unseat progressive candidates. But the pro-Israel groups did not make significant investments in Omar's race against Samuels like they did in Bowman and Bush’s.

Omar is expected to be the frontrunner for reelection in November within her strongly Democratic House district.

“I am honored that my community voted to send me back to Congress. Tonight’s victory shows that the Fifth District believes in the collective values we are fighting for in Washington,” Omar said in a statement after her decisive victory in the primary election, which she won by over 13 percentage points.

"I am committed to doing everything possible to unite the district to win big in November and ensure Vice President (Kamala) Harris and (Minnesota) Governor (Tim) Walz are elected as the next President and Vice President of the United States. But tonight we celebrate,” she added.

The primary race was closely watched, especially after Omar narrowly defeated Samuels in 2022, winning by fewer than 2,500 votes in an election that saw over 110,000 votes cast in total.

Omar has been a vocal critic of Israel's ongoing military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians since a cross-border attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year which killed nearly 1,200 people.

She was among the nearly half of the Democratic Congress members who boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial address to the US Congress last month.

Omar, a refugee fleeing the civil war in Somalia, was among the first two Muslim women elected to Congress along with Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American Representative from Michigan.