Minnesota election results: Rep. Ilhan Omar wins reelection
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Associated Press has called the race for Rep. Ilhan Omar, winning reelection in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District by defeating challenger Dalia al-Aqidi..
Find other election results here.
Omar has served CD-5 for three terms. She won her primary against second-time challenger Don Samuels with 56% of the vote. Meanwhile, al-Aqidi ran unopposed in the Republican primary.
Live results for Minnesota's CD-5
Results for Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District will start to come in when polls close at 8 p.m. You can find results below or by clicking here.
Who is Ilhan Omar?
Omar began her career in Congress after being sworn into office in January 2019. She became the first African refugee to serve in Congress and the first woman of color to represent Minnesota.
She ran a campaign that focused on investing in education and student debt relief, as well as immigration reform and tackling the threat of climate change. Omar has also been a vocal critic of Israel’s government.
Omar is the vice-ranking member of the House Budget Committee and serves on the House Education and Workforce Committee. She is also the deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus as well as the vice chair of the Medicare For All Caucus. Other committees she serves on include the LGBT Equality Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, Women’s Caucus and Pro-Choice Caucus.
Omar was born in Somalia and arrived in the U.S. in the 1990s when she was 8-years-old after spending four years at a refugee camp in Kenya.
She and her family moved to Minneapolis in 1997 and gained interest in politics as a teenager.
Omar then worked as a community educator at the University of Minnesota, became a Policy Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and served as a Senior Police Aide for the Minneapolis City Council.
She married Tim Mynett, a former political aide, in March 2020.
Who is Dalia al-Aqidi?
Dalia al-Aqidi was a political newcomer and ran unopposed in the Republican primary.
Al-Aqidi ran on a platform of lowering inflation, government spending and taxes, improving public safety, and securing the southern U.S. border to manage immigration.
She accused Omar of "driving wedges" between the communities of the Fifth Congressional District.
Al-Aqidi worked as a journalist, activist and geopolitical analyst before entering politics.
She was born and raised in Baghdad, Iraq, but fled during Saddam Hussein’s regime in 1993 and found refuge in the United States.
On her campaign website, al-Aqidi said, "I didn’t come to America to import the pathologies I left behind."