Ilhan Omar braces for primary rematch after watching two ‘Squad’ allies fall

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is two days away from learning whether she has won the Democratic primary for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, essentially ensuring her path to reelection.

Her challenger, a familiar foe in former Minneapolis Councilman Don Samuels, believes he can unseat the sitting Democrat, arguing while campaigning on Sunday that she has been “divisive.”

“The voters have had three terms under Congresswoman Omar’s leadership and service,” Samuels said to FOX 9. “They are dissatisfied.”

“She goes hard after one point of view, condemns the other point of view, alienates half of her district, and becomes divisive,” he added.

Omar pushed back on his comments the same day, contending Samuels supports similar policy positions to her, something to which he himself agreed.

“He’s now adopted all of my policies because he knows those are winning policies,” she told the outlet. “I hope we actually hear what he might want to do, instead of just taking my full platform and running with it.”

“Anyone who knows me and Don knows who the divisive one is,” Omar added.

It appears there is little love lost between the two Democrats. Omar narrowly won reelection against Samuels in 2022, securing the Democratic nomination by just roughly 2,500 votes. And because a Republican has not represented the district since the 1960s, the primary election is treated as the real determinant for who will represent the seat.

The stakes are even higher given how other Democratic primaries have gone so far this cycle. Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-MO) have already been unseated, largely due to the massive contributions from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group, to their opponents.

Omar, like Bowman and Bush, has been critical of Israel during its military conflict in Gaza. Yet pro-Israel groups have been largely absent from the Minnesota Democrat’s reelection race, and Omar has significantly outspent Samuels.