Rep. Ilhan Omar was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018. The real contest then was a multi-candidate primary where she won 48% of the vote after being endorsed by the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. The district includes all of Minneapolis and many of the surrounding suburbs. She serves on the Education and Labor, Foreign Affairs and the Budget Committee.
She is the first Somali-American Member of Congress, the first woman of color to represent Minnesota, and one of the first two Muslim-American women elected to Congress.
Omar is favored for re-election. She was endorsed by the party in an end of May convention with 65% of the vote, but again the main competition is an August 11 primary.
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. She graduated from North Dakota State University.
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.
In the House, Omar has been active and supportive of Council issues, voting 100% of the time for the pro-arms control positions and has co-sponsored many bills endorsed by Council for a Livable World.
