policy
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, one in every of the House progressives often known as the “Squad” and a fierce critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, has won her primary in Minnesota.
Omar successfully defended her Minneapolis-area fifth District seat against a renewed challenge from former Minneapolis City Councilman Don Samuels, a more centrist liberal whom she narrowly defeated within the 2022 primary.
Omar escaped the fate of two of his squadmates. Rep. Cori Bush lost the Democratic nomination in her Missouri district last week, and Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York lost his primary in June. Both faced well-funded challengers and thousands and thousands in spending from the United Democracy Project, a political motion committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that apparently sat out the Minnesota race.
Samuels had criticized Omar's condemnation of the Israeli government's handling of the war between Israel and Hamas. While Omar also criticized Hamas for attacks on Israel and hostage-taking, Samuels said it was one-sided and divisive. He also highlighted public issues of safety in Minneapolis, where a former police officer murdered George Floyd in 2020.
Samuels said he was “very disappointed” together with his defeat.
“Obviously money plays a somewhat bigger role in politics than I had hoped,” he said in an interview
Omar will face Republican Dalia Al-Aqidi, an Iraqi-American journalist and self-described secular Muslim who Omar describes as pro-Hamas.
Meanwhile, conservative populist and former NBA player Royce White defeated Navy veteran Joe Fraser within the Minnesota primary for the Republican nomination to face Democratic U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar in November.
And former federal prosecutor Joe Teirab, backed by former President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and the National Republican Congressional Committee, won a contested Republican primary for Minnesota's 2nd District seat held by Democratic Rep. Angie Craig.
His opponent, defense attorney Taylor Rahm, was capable of win support on the district convention with the support of the conservative base.
Although Rahm announced in July that he would put his campaign on hold and as a substitute function a senior adviser to Trump's Minnesota campaign, he remained on the ballot.
Teirab will face Craig in November in what is anticipated to be essentially the most competitive race for a seat within the Minnesota House of Representatives.
Craig issued an announcement after Teirab's victory, describing him as “a man who recently moved to the district because he saw a political opportunity.”
“He's a man who has spent months doing everything he can to gain the support of Republicans in Washington,” Craig said. “And he's a man who has made it his life's work to take away families' reproductive freedoms and leave those decisions to politicians.”
In the U.S. Senate race, White – an ally of imprisoned former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones – shocked many political observers when he defeated Fraser on the convention and urged Republicans to support his party.
White's social media comments have been denounced as misogynistic, homophobic, anti-Semitic and blasphemous. His legal and financial troubles include unpaid child support and questionable campaign spending, including $1,200 spent at a Florida strip club after losing his 2022 primary to Omar. He argues that as a Black man, he can broaden the party's base by appealing to voters of color within the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area and others disillusioned with establishment politics.
Fraser said White's confrontational style and message wouldn’t attract the moderates and independents needed to mount a competitive challenge to Klobuchar, who’s looking for a fourth term. He represents a more mainstream approach, emphasizing fiscal conservatism, a powerful defense, global leadership and small government. Fraser also pointed to his 26 years within the Navy, where he was an intelligence officer and served in combat in Iraq.
Neither of them has anywhere near the resources Klobuchar has at her disposal. White recently reported $133,000, while Fraser took in $68,000. Klobuchar has raised around $19 million this legislative session and may spend greater than $6 million on the campaign trail. She had only nominal opponents within the primaries.
Another clash between establishment and grassroots Republicans took place within the seventh District in western Minnesota. Trump-backed Republican Rep. Michelle Fischbach, considered one of the vital conservative members of Congress, defeated small business owner Steve Boyd. Boyd stood to her right, using religious arguments to forestall her from gaining support on the district convention. Boyd reported spending $170,000, while Fischbach spent over 1,000,000 dollars.
image credit : www.boston.com