Ilhan Omar Runs for Re-election After ‘The Squad’ Suffer Big Losses

Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat and member of the progressive group of lawmakers known as “the Squad,” will face the fight of her political life Tuesday in a closely watched showdown.

Omar, one of the left’s most prominent lawmakers, is running in the Democratic primary for Minnesota’s District 5^t Congressional District against former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels. The two also competed in the district’s 2022 primary, a race that fell just a few thousand votes short.

But is Omar’s race one of several primaries taking place across the country on Tuesday? Why has the rematch drawn national attention?

That’s because the Democratic challenge comes after two other members of the Squad — Reps. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and Cori Bush, D-Mo. — were ousted in primaries earlier this year, where they faced broad opposition from pro-Israel groups.

Bush, Bowman and Omar are the three most vocal critics of the Israeli government in Congress. But if you’ve been following Omar’s race and are having déjà vu, remember that her reelection bid is very different from that of her fellow progressives.

Here’s what you need to know about Tuesday’s primaries.

Ilhan Omar Rematch 2022

First, let’s look at the 2022 race between Omar and Samuels. This year, the Democratic lawmaker defeated Samuels by just 2,466 votes. It was a much closer contest than her 2020 reelection primary, which she won handily by just over 35,000 votes.

While Omar and Samuels have sparred on a wide range of issues, policing in America has taken center stage in their recent elections. Omar has been one of the more outspoken lawmakers calling for changes to policing policies in the state where George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police in 2020. During this campaign, she has not changed her support for cutting police budgets to fund anti-violence and social programs to reduce crime.

Samuels has campaigned hard for more funding for the police to combat rising crime, focusing on his role in defeating a referendum initiative in Minneapolis that sought to replace the police department with a public safety agency.

Members of the “squad” and Israel’s war with Hamas

In 2024, political observers are less interested in Omar and Samuels’ stance on the police and more focused on their comments on Israel’s war with Hamas.

Because Omar is a frequent critic of the Israeli government and has condemned its actions in Gaza. But she has made more controversial comments than many other lawmakers who have expressed concerns about Israel’s actions. In April, she faced significant backlash when, during a visit to protesters on the Columbia University campus, she suggested that some Jewish students were supporting “genocide.”

But her comments predate the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the ongoing war. The Republican majority removed Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in February 2023 because of her past comments about Israel that members of both parties have deemed anti-Semitic.

After launching his campaign last year, Samuels criticized Omar for voting against sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine while supporting sanctions against Israel.

More: Rep. Ilhan Omar vows to ‘continue speaking out’ after House Republicans remove her from committee

“Our congresswoman is prone to division and conflict,” Samuels told The Associated Press at the time.

So if you followed the recent Squad primaries, including the defeats of Bush and Bowman, you might think that Omar would surely follow in the footsteps of his colleagues, who have also been outspoken critics of the Israeli government.

But there are factors that put her on firmer ground. For example, Omar has outraised Samuels in fundraising, according to multiple reports, and has spent significantly more on ads to reach voters in the district.

In addition, Bush and Bowman have faced millions of dollars in spending from pro-Israel groups, most notably the United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Omar’s race has not seen the same influx of funding from outside groups, which could play a role in her re-election bid.

Contributors: Phillip Bailey and Karissa Waddick, USA TODAY