Voters in Minneapolis have a chance in Tuesday’s primary to defeat Rep. Ilhan Omar ’s (D-MN) bid for renomination, thus extending a growing voter backlash against the most radically leftist Democrats in Congress.
The Minnesota voters would be following the lead of Missouri Democrats who voted to evict Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) on Aug. 6, as well as New York Democrats who chose to oust Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) in June. Like Bush and Bowman, Omar has built a record that can fairly be described as hateful and antisemitic .
Omar has repeatedly tweeted vile tropes about Jews supposedly buying influence, has referred to Jewish students as being “ pro-genocide ,” and has essentially equated “the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban” as all being in the same category of proneness to commit “unthinkable atrocities.” She associates with and helps raise funds for antisemitic groups, some with close financial ties with terrorism , and then has her aides lie about it . And those are just a few examples.
On other matters, Omar has voted against funding for U.S. defense and homeland security, against denouncing the murderous horrors of socialism, against denouncing violence committed against police, and even against a measure to develop a strategy to strengthen cooperation with Mexico. In all those cases, she voted against overwhelming, bipartisan majorities.
Key groups representing manufacturers, builders and contractors, independent businesses, and even bakers have given her ratings of absolute zero, meaning she is radically against the nation’s key job creators. And on almost every issue imaginable, she rates not just as liberal but as an extremist.
By contrast, her chief opponent, Don Samuels, has years of experience on the city council and the board of education as an old-fashioned, consensus-building liberal who speaks eloquently against political divisiveness. He also is more pragmatic than Omar, as he opposed an effort in 2021, which she supported, to replace the Minneapolis Police Department completely with a fuzzy-headed “Department of Public Safety.” The city’s voters wisely defeated the proposal in a landslide.
Samuels came within a mere 2 percentage points of defeating Omar in the 2022 primary, and now he is back for another try. Despite Omar’s hateful record, every member of the Democratic leadership in the U.S. House has endorsed her, demonstrating their preference for raw power over basic decency. Minnesota voters, though, can prove by defeating Omar that they are independent of Washington’s cynical power brokers.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Then again, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) also endorsed the radical Bowman in New York and Bush in Missouri, yet voters there rejected Jeffries’s misguided interference. Last week’s 6-point loss by Bush brought out the same extremist spirit in her that is the trademark of both Omar and of the disgraced Bowman , with Bush going on a 19-minute rant threatening retribution and saying she is now “radicalized even more.”
Democratic voters can prove they are better than all this. If they defeat Omar, they will have achieved a rare trifecta of beating incumbents in primary elections in one year, in this case, sending a signal that mainstream liberalism is far more constructive than divisiveness and hate.
Most Popular
Comments / 0