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Ilhan Omar, early this morning clinched the Democratic party nomination for the US 5th congressional district for Minnesota beating her rival Don Samuels, a former member of the Minneapolis city council.
At the time of this filing, most of the precinct reporting gave her a comfortable 14-point margin to Mr. Samuels, 56.2%-42.9%. She will likely win the general elections in the heavily leaning Democrats district.
Rep. Ilhan was first elected to the US House of Representatives for the Minnesota’s 5th congressional district to serve a two year term 2016 during the contentious Presidency of Donald J. Trump.
This is the 4th time she has won the seat. Ms. Omar is Somali-American. She was a refugee in Kenya after escaping with her family war-torn Somalia and later secured asylum to the US in 1995.
This race was closely watched after recent losses by progressive members dubbed ‘The Squad‘ of which she is a member of. She has been a sharp critic of Israel’s conduct of war in Gaza and Palestine.
In the last two weeks two members of the Squad, Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri and Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York lost their primaries after the powerful super PAC, United Democracy Project, a lobbying arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee heavily resourced their opponents. They were very critical of Israel’s war in Gaza.
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