Rep. Ilhan Omar ends campaign's contract with husband's consulting firm

(FOX 9) - U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar said in a statement Monday that she has ended her campaign’s contract with her husband’s consulting firm.

Rep. Omar said she only kept the contract this long because she needed the firm’s knowledge to fight off multi-million dollar challenges in the 2020 primary and general elections.

Earlier this year, Rep. Omar's challengers raised questions about her campaign finances, particularly in regards to the more than $606,000 paid to the Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm run by her husband over a three-week period in July.

"I don’t pay my husband. I pay the firm to do work," the congresswoman told moderators of the WCCO radio debate. "We have this firm, really, to carry out the contractual work we do with other vendors."

Rep. Omar wrote that, years ago, former staffer for Keith Ellison, Will Hailer, went into business with Tim Mynett, Ellison's national finance and political director. The two built a consulting firm and helped Rep. Omar build her first campaign.

"It was over a dozen staff at their firm that supported our election, and re-election, efforts," she wrote. "From the former paid media director for Elizabeth Warren’s presidential run to Sherrod Brown’s former digital director to several designers who worked at the Democratic National Committee — the firm had our back with some incredible talent."

In March of this year, Rep. Omar and Tim Mynett got married.

"I can assure you that every interaction our campaign had with the folks on his team, were allowed under federal law. Because of Will and Tim's decades of combined knowledge and experience in the Fifth, and the work they had done to prepare us for re-election — where our primary and general opponents spent a record-setting $14 million against us — we couldn’t part ways with this team after we got married. Every dollar that was spent went to a team of more than twenty that were helping us fight back against attacks and organize on the ground and online in a COVID-19 world. And Tim — beyond his salary at the firm — received no profit whatsoever from the consulting relationship the firm provided," Rep. Omar wrote.

"That being said, this movement is larger than one or two people, it's about all of us collectively. And because of that, you deserve to be a part of a movement that you can rely on, believe in, and know that it is holding itself to the highest possible standards. So we've decided to terminate our contract with Tim and Will’s firm. While many of our close supporters know these two well and have recommended we keep them on — I want to make sure that anybody who is supporting our campaign with their time or financial support feels there is no perceived issue with that support."

Full statement:

It’s been over a week since the general election, Ilhan, and these last four years of the Trump administration are close to being behind us.
As a movement, and as a campaign, we have faced attack after attack — from the President and the GOP who will stop at nothing to halt our progress right in its tracks. Some of these attacks were even talking points of our primary Democratic opponents, but that did not stop us.
Together, we knocked on 150,000 doors, had 20,000 in-person conversations with voters, and made hundreds of thousands of calls and texts, and helped turn out more than 532,000 voters in the Fifth District alone. What we did, despite being outraised and outspent, was historic. We centered marginalized people in our campaign, and we didn’t allow fear and hatred from Donald Trump and his GOP allies to divide us.
And now that I'm on my way to a second term, and we're on our way to passing bold, progressive policies that people in the Fifth, and people around the country are counting on us to pass, I want to address something important to me, my family, and our campaign.
One of the first people to reach out to me about running for Congress — mere moments after Keith Ellison announced he was running for Attorney General in Minnesota — was one of his former staffers, Will Hailer.
Will grew up in Minnesota. Attended school in Minnesota. Worked several campaigns, including at the Minnesota DFL and the Minnesota DFL House Caucus before serving as Keith Ellison’s campaign manager and later district director. Needless to say, Will knows the Fifth well.
He went into business — after more than a decade of working in politics including, running the Texas Democratic Party and serving as Senior Advisor to DNC Chairman Tom Perez — with Keith’s national finance and political director, Tim Mynett. Tim had worked for Keith for more than a decade — traveling the country raising the resources necessary for Keith to organize in Minnesota, donate to progressive campaigns across the country, and ensure that every vote would be counted.
These two individuals — and eventually more than a dozen people working at their consulting firm — knew our district, understood what we were fighting for and against, and were able to help me build a campaign operation that had the highest voter turnout in our primary and general election this cycle.
But as I said earlier, it wasn’t just these two. It was over a dozen staff at their firm that supported our election, and re-election, efforts. From the former paid media director for Elizabeth Warren’s presidential run to Sherrod Brown’s former digital director to several designers who worked at the Democratic National Committee — the firm had our back with some incredible talent.
In March of this year, Tim and I married. We have found true happiness together. He is my light and is an incredible father to our blended family. And while I won’t comment more on our personal life than that, I can assure you that every interaction our campaign had with the folks on his team, were allowed under federal law. Because of Will and Tim's decades of combined knowledge and experience in the Fifth, and the work they had done to prepare us for re-election — where our primary and general opponents spent a record-setting $14 million against us — we couldn’t part ways with this team after we got married.
Every dollar that was spent went to a team of more than twenty that were helping us fight back against attacks and organize on the ground and online in a COVID-19 world. And Tim — beyond his salary at the firm — received no profit whatsoever from the consulting relationship the firm provided.
That being said, this movement is larger than one or two people, it's about all of us collectively. And because of that, you deserve to be a part of a movement that you can rely on, believe in, and know that it is holding itself to the highest possible standards.
So we've decided to terminate our contract with Tim and Will’s firm. While many of our close supporters know these two well and have recommended we keep them on — I want to make sure that anybody who is supporting our campaign with their time or financial support feels there is no perceived issue with that support.
For those of you who have welcomed Tim or Will into your homes over the last more than a decade as they have worked for two historically elected congressional members from Minnesota, thank you. For our neighbors over the last several months who have seen Tim on the campaign trail or given him a socially distanced elbow bump, thank you. You will still see both out on the campaign trail — just like so many of you — as super volunteers who are dedicated to our shared cause.
We are in this fight to change the future of our country. Yes — for Tim and my's children — but more importantly, all of our children. And we do that through fairness, transparency, and by doing what's right by the people and I want to make sure you feel confident that I always have your back.
In solidarity,
Ilhan Omar