In the wake of far-left Democratic representative Cori Bush’s primary loss last week, Don Samuels had a message for Ilhan Omar, another high-profile “Squad” member and his opponent in Minnesota’s primary: “It’s clear that Democrats around the country are ready to move on from those who put politics above the people.”
It turns out that voters in Minnesota’s deep-blue fifth congressional district aren’t ready to move on from Omar, one of the House of Representatives’ most divisive members.
As she had done in 2022, Omar defeated Samuels in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, but this time around she won handily. Omar received 67,524 votes, or 56.2 percent, to Samuels’s 51,581 votes, or 42.9 percent, as of 9:45 p.m. in Minnesota. The Associated Press called the race for Omar at 9:39 p.m.
Because her Minneapolis-anchored district is such a Democratic stronghold, Omar will almost assuredly be reelected to a fourth House term in November.
“Tonight’s victory shows that the Fifth District believes in the collective values we are fighting for in Washington,” Omar wrote on X after her win. “This seat is for all of us. I will continue to take our hopes and dreams to the People’s House.”
In a prepared statement, Samuels said that running against “a party-endorsed incumbent, with a national fundraising base is a Herculean task.” Despite his loss, he said that he believes “the results show that people are hungry for a different approach to leadership.”
Samuels, a 75-year-old former professional toy designer and one-time Minneapolis councilman, nearly knocked off Omar two years ago, coming within about two percentage points of beating her. He launched his latest campaign in November, believing that getting an early start would give him much needed time to reintroduce himself to voters.
The timing seemed to be right for Samuels, especially after Squad member Jamaal Bowman lost his New York primary in June and Bush was defeated last week in Missouri. Samuels, a traditional Democrat who pitched himself as a candidate who could bridge sharp partisan divides, reported a surge of enthusiasm for his campaign after Bush’s defeat.
But after being blindsided by Samuels two years ago, Omar didn’t let her guard down again.
She ramped up her fundraising machine, raising more than $6.2 million this cycle, more than double the $2.3 million she had spent in 2022, according to the Associated Press. She swamped Samuels financially — he raised about $1.4 million — and used the money to blanket the airwaves with ads. She also hired more campaign staff, including more staffers in the suburbs.
And despite her long history of antisemitic statements, the pro-Israel groups who helped unseat Bowman and Bush stayed on the sidelines in Omar’s race. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s super PAC did not target Omar.
Samuels, who has called Israel an important U.S. ally, told Jewish Insider in July that pro-Israel groups would miss an opportunity if they didn’t aid his campaign.
“I think it’s a mistake for anybody who sees the direction the country is going in, who sees Ilhan’s role in it in terms of the divisiveness in general and, in this specific case, the challenges in the Middle East that are so fraught,” he said, adding that Omar’s anti-Israel rhetoric is “exacerbating those tensions.”
“Any group that sees that and feels invested in outcomes that is not getting involved in this race,” he said, “is losing an opportunity.”
Samuels cited Omar’s anti-Israel stances when he entered the race last year, a month after the October 7 attacks. He noted that she was one of only ten members of the House to oppose a resolution condemning “Hamas’ brutal war against Israel” and reaffirming Israel’s right to self-defense, and she introduced legislation opposing American military support for what she has deemed Israel’s “war crimes in Gaza.”
He accused Omar of taking a “one-sided view of the struggle.” While most people were “outraged and appalled” by the brutal slaughter of innocent Israeli civilians by Hamas terrorists, Omar “didn’t have that reaction,” Samuels said. “She had to be goaded into it.”
Omar’s history of antisemitic comments date back more than a decade. In 2012, she apologized for tweeting that Israel was guilty of “hypnotizing the world.” As a freshman in Congress in 2019, she was forced to apologize after tweeting that congressional support for Israel is “all about the Benjamins baby,” suggesting that her colleagues are bought off by AIPAC.
She has continued to make controversial remarks since then. In April, Omar’s daughter was arrested at an anti-Israel protest at Columbia University, and during a trip to the school the following month, Omar suggested that some Jewish American are “pro-genocide.”
Omar has also been a lightning rod for controversy over some of her other far-left views, including her support for defunding the police in Minneapolis during a massive crime wave, and for engaging in attention-grabbing political stunts.
In November, Omar will face Dalia Al-Aqidi, a journalist and an immigrant from Iraq who ran unopposed in the Republican primary. In a December New York Post op-ed, Al-Aqidi accused Omar of being “remarkably ineffective” for her district and said Omar “seeks to fundamentally transform America” by “using Minneapolis as the nation’s crash test dummy.”
“My thinking was clear and necessary,” she wrote about joining the race. “Rather than legislate effectively, Omar has been more like an absentee landlord who fails to represent the needs of her district. Put simply: We deserve better.”