Ilhan Omar defeats primary challenger Antone Melton-Meaux in Minnesota's 5th District
- Rep. Ilhan Omar beat back a competitive primary challenge in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party from the attorney and mediator Antone Melton-Meaux in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District.
- Omar, a former state representative, was elected to the solidly Democratic Minneapolis-based district in 2018 and gained a major national profile as a leading progressive voice.
- Melton-Meaux nearly matched Omar both in campaign fundraising and spending while receiving the support of several prominent politicians and local leaders in the community.
The prominent first-term Rep. Ilhan Omar on Tuesday beat back a high-stakes, competitive primary challenge in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party from the attorney and mediator Antone Melton-Meaux in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District.
Omar, a former state representative, was elected to the solidly Democratic Minneapolis-based district in 2018, replacing Rep. Keith Ellison. A former refugee, Omar made history as the first Somali American elected to the US Congress and, along with Rashida Tlaib in Michigan, one of the first two Muslim women elected to serve in Congress.
Tlaib, Omar, and two other young progressive women of color elected to safe seats in the 2018 blue wave — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — quickly formed an alliance in Congress and became known as "the squad."
The group's members are adept communicators who have positioned themselves as leaders and spokeswomen for a new generation of progressive leaders with an agenda focused on working-class people. They've also been the target of sexist and racist attacks, including from President Donald Trump, and have received plenty of criticism from Republicans and from within their party.
Omar, in particular, has come under scrutiny for some of the more controversial parts of her record, including comments about Israel that some interpreted to be anti-Semitic and her choice to vote "present" on a resolution condemning the Armenian genocide. In the course of this election cycle, she has disbursed $1.65 million in campaign funds to her husband's political consulting firm for digital and radio advertising, financial choices that while not illegal have raised some eyebrows.
Melton-Meaux, who previously practiced law in Minneapolis and Washington, DC, now runs an independent mediation firm in Minneapolis. He argued that Omar was too focused on building her own profile and that her various controversies had prevented her from most effectively serving the district and were an untenable distraction.
"We need people in Congress who want to get things done — not who get distracted fighting with Donald Trump on Twitter or even with their own party," Melton-Meaux said on his campaign website. "I'll do the hard work that comes along with the demands of public office, while remaining Focused On The Fifth."
The congresswoman and her representatives countered that she wasn't as partisan and divisive as some made her out to be, arguing that the work she did behind the scenes reflected her dedication to legislating and coalition-building.
They've said in interviews with the Minnesota Reformer and to the Minneapolis Star Tribune that in addition to serving in a leadership role as the whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, she's sponsored 34 bills and passed over a dozen legislative amendments, championed economic and racial-justice causes in partnership with other legislators, and, Omar told the Reformer, has even found common ground with some fellow millennial Republicans in the chamber.
Omar was the most endangered member of the squad after Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib easily quashed Democratic primary challengers of their own in elections earlier this summer.
Unlike Ocasio-Cortez's and Tlaib's primary challengers, Melton-Meaux nearly matched Omar both in campaign fundraising and spending, and he received the support of several prominent politicians and local leaders in the community.
Melton-Meaux raised $4.1 million and spent $3.4 million this cycle, compared with $4.2 million raised and $3.5 million spent for Omar, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Outside pro-Israel PACs have also spent heavily in the district on Melton-Meaux's behalf, the center said.
The editorial board of the Star Tribune, which has been critical of Omar throughout her tenure, endorsed Melton-Meaux, as did locally and nationally recognized civil-rights activists including Josie Johnson and the former Minneapolis NAACP president Nekima Levy-Armstrong.
Seven House incumbents have lost primaries this year, including Democratic Reps. Dan Lipinski of Illinois, Eliot Engel of New York, and, most recently, Lacy Clay of Missouri.