Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, the progressive lightning rod whose unabated criticism of Israel has deepened fissures in the Democratic Party over war in the Gaza Strip, won her primary Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.
While she prevailed, it has been a rocky summer for the “squad,” the ultraliberal faction of lawmakers in the House.
Two other members of the group, Reps. Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri, suffered primary defeats in June and August after pro-Israel groups spent millions trying to influence those contests.
Omar, 41, who is seeking a fourth term in Congress, heavily outspent her three opponents, including Don Samuels, a former Minneapolis City Council member, who came within 2,500 votes of ousting her in the 2022 primary. Unlike several other primary contests, Omar’s race did not see a large amount of campaign spending originating outside the district.
Midway through Donald Trump’s presidency in 2018, Omar was one of several women of color on the far left of the Democratic Party who were elected to the House. That group includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
Trump famously said in 2019 that Omar and the other three women should “go back” to their countries, though she was the only one not born in the United States.
Omar, who was born in Somalia and is one of two Muslim women in the House, has faced backlash for her criticism of Israel and pro-Palestinian beliefs.
In 2023, Republicans in the House ousted Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee in a party-line vote over her past comments about Israel that had been widely condemned as antisemitic.
While showing her support for pro-Palestinian protesters at a Columbia University encampment in April, Omar created a furor when she suggested that some Jewish students were “pro-genocide.” Her daughter had been one of several students who were suspended for participating in the encampment.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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