Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, in her first reelection bid, isn’t the only Muslim refugee running in her Minneapolis district.
Dalia al Aqidi on Thursday announced she’s seeking the Republican nomination. She joins a crowded field of GOP rivals running for the right to challenge Omar, 38, an Israel-bashing firebrand lawmaker whose family fled Somalia to escape civil war and spent four years in a refugee campaign in Kenya before immigrating to the United States.
Al Aqidi, 51, fled Saddam Hussein’s Iraq with her family when she was in her early 20s, coming to the U.S. and becoming a citizen. She went on to a career in television journalism and moved to the Minneapolis district several months ago.
If elected, al Aqidi would be the third straight Muslim American to represent the district in the House, following Omar and her predecessor Keith Ellison, now Minnesota’s attorney general.
“I chose to launch this campaign after thinking, watching, and researching,” al Aqidi told the Washington Examiner. “I truly believe that Ilhan Omar is doing irreparable harm to her district, to Minnesota, and to the whole country. Somebody needs to stop her. She continues to spread anti-Semitism and hateful rhetoric.”
Omar was first elected to the House in 2018 when she and Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, 43, became the first of two Muslim women to win seats in Congress. The pair enjoy a higher profile than most first-term lawmakers thanks to their membership of “the Squad,” the quartet of Democratic minority women, including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
However, while Omar’s arrival on Capitol Hill was hailed as a nonpartisan victory for diversity, her presence there was quickly politicized as she weighed in on charged issues such as U.S.-Israeli relations and the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement.
During Omar’s congressional run, she voiced opposition to the BDS movement, which effectively seeks to eliminate Israel as a sovereign state. But after she won the crucial Democratic primary, Omar said she did indeed support BDS.
Omar received negative attention almost immediately after joining the House. Last February, she responded to a tweet by a vocal Israel critic, Glenn Greenwald, who had written about House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, pushing to punish Omar and Tlaib over their anti-Israel views.
Omar wrote back, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” a less-than-subtle reference to stereotypes of Jewish Americans, provoking reprimands from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a GOP-backed resolution.
These and other actions brought Omar the dubious honor of being named stopantisemitism.org’s 2019 “Antisemite of the Year.”
The Israeli government also banned Omar and Tlaib last summer from visiting the country on a trip funded by Miftah, a group that has published neo-Nazis and sympathized with suicide bombers. And just last week, Omar drew ire for saying she was “stricken with PTSD” due to escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
“Her language is so toxic and severe, not only to gain attention for herself, but she wants to position herself as a celebrity,” al Aqidi said. “She’s not fighting for us. She’s not fighting for her district. She is fighting for herself and herself only, which means she’s fighting against us.”
Al Aqidi, a former political reporter for Voice of America and a White House correspondent for Middle Eastern television networks who also covered conflicts in Iraq and Lebanon, enters a crowded field of Republicans looking to topple Omar.
“I’ve been a journalist for 31 years, and I’ve covered war zones and covered conflicts around the world, so right away my main issue is national security, and there are many dangerous individuals, both Islamists and others, are trying to harm the U.S. and are trying to harm our system and to harm our democracy,” al Aqidi said. “I truly believe that President Trump is making efforts to make America safer by taking action against these people or these groups.”
Whoever ends up as the GOP nominee will face long odds in the district. The 5th District includes all of the city of Minneapolis, along with suburbs such as St. Louis Park, which has a substantial Jewish population, and surrounding areas. In 2016, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton beat Republican rival Donald Trump there resoundingly, 74%-19%, though he claimed the presidency.
