Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a member of the so-called “Squad” in Congress and a frequent critic of the Jewish state, defeated Don Samuels by more than 13 percentage points in the Democratic primary for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District on Tuesday night.
With 99% of the vote in, the Associated Press reported that Omar secured 56.2% of the vote (67,524 votes), compared to Samuels’s 42.9% (51,581 votes). Neither of the other two candidates received 600 votes.
Samuels, a former member of the Minneapolis City Council, lost to Omar in 2022 by less than 2,500 votes.
Omar “is being dishonest and fear-mongering by telling people I’m a Republican and that AIPAC is coming to unseat her,” Samuels wrote on Monday. “Well, in her six-year tenure, only two bills she’s written and sponsored have become law—both renamed post offices. She can’t run on her achievements, so she has to use fear to win.”
“But here’s the truth: I’m a Democrat (always have been), and AIPAC has not endorsed me nor spent money on this race,” Samuels added.
Adar Rubin, a director of mobilization at EndJewHatred, wrote earlier in the day that “On Tisha B’Av, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, the only thing that would make me happy is seeing Ilhan Omar unseated today.” On Monday, Rubin wrote that a vote for Omar “is a vote for two more years of Jew-hatred in Congress.”
Two other Squad members, Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.), lost their primaries.
