Rep. Ilhan Omar was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018. In a crowded Democratic primary in the progressive 5th district, she won with more than 48% of the vote and went on to win the general election with 78% of the vote. In 2020 and 2022, she beat back well-funded primary challenges, most recently defeating Don Samuels in 2022 50-48%. She easily won her general election in 2022 75-25% with support from Council for a Livable World.
Born in Somalia, Rep. Omar and her family fled the country’s civil war when she was eight. The family spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States in the 1990s. Before running for office, she worked as a community educator at the University of Minnesota, was a Policy Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and served as a Senior Policy Aide for the Minneapolis City Council. In 2016, she was elected to the Minnesota House Representatives.
She is the first Somali-American Member of Congress, the first woman of color to represent Minnesota, and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. She currently sits on the House Education and Workforce, and Budget committees and is the Deputy Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Rep. Omar has a perfect voting record on the issues the Council tracks and has been a leading congressional voice for building a more inclusive and progressive foreign policy. She has advocated for policies that would put diplomacy first to make military action a last resort; cut waste and redundancy from the Pentagon budget; reconsider harmful sanctions and other interventionist policies; and prevent a war with Iran.
