Ilhan Omar seeks to avoid same fate as fellow Squad members in primary race

Other ‘Squad’ members have faced expensive and difficult primaries thanks to donations from super PACs

Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar will face off against a former challenger in her district’s primary race on Tuesday (Getty Images)

Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, a progressive member of the House and part of “The Squad”, will try to avoid a similar fate met by two close allies in her primary election on Tuesday.

Omar, who has represented Minnesota’s 5th congressional district since 2018, is facing off, again, against Don Samuels – a Minneapolis City Council member who Omar narrowly defeated two years ago.

All eyes will be on Tuesday’s primary to see how Omar fares against Samuels given two other members of “The Squad” – the group of progressive left-wing young representatives in the House – have faced defeats in their districts.

Last week, Missouri Rep Cori Bush lost her primary to a local prosecutor in an expensive and contentious race. New York Rep Jamaal Bowman also lost his seat in the most expensive House primary in history thanks to an onslaught of funding to his challenger.

Both losses were, in part, attributed to Bush and Bowman’s support of a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict – something Omar has been an outspoken advocate of. 

Ilhan Omar (left) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are both members of ‘The Squad’ a group of progressive left-wing representatives in the House of Representatives (Getty Images)

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee super PAC, a pro-Israel lobbying group, poured more than $14 million into Bowman’s primary, successfully unseating him. That same group spent more than $9 million in Bush’s primary.

But the super PAC chose not to involve itself in Omar’s primary, a spokesperson for the group told The Hill. 

This has given Omar’s supporters a confidence boost that she can maintain her seat.

“Despite last-ditch efforts by right-wing interests and Trump donors to boost her opponent, the people of MN-05 know Ilhan Omar is the representation they deserve to have in Congress,” Usamah Andrabi, communications director for Justice Democrats, an organization supporting Omar, told The Hill.

Two years ago, Omar defeated Samuels by less than 3,000 votes in her district – an extremely narrow win.

At the time, Samuels’ campaign outpaced Omar’s in donations and spending. 

But Omar’s campaign has changed strategies since then, she told AXIOS that her team was “campaigning the way we normally campaign” like using volunteers to door knock, call or text voters

So far, Omar has outraised Samuels by millions of dollars, according to OpenSecrets. Her campaign has spent more than $4 million while Samuels’ has spent less than one million.

Omar became the first Somali-American elected to Congress in 2018 when she won her district with more than 70 percent of the vote. She is one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress, alongside fellow Squad member Rashida Tlaib.

Over the last year, Omar has made headlines for heavily criticizing Israel for the invasion of Gaza and killing of thousands of innocent Palestinians in retaliation for the October 7th attack by Hamas. But some have accused her of making antisemitic comments.