Rep. Ilhan Omar easily outpaced her primary challenger on Tuesday, beating out rival Don Samuels with 56 percent of the vote to Samuels’ 43 percent.
With her victory, Omar avoided the same fate as two of her colleagues on the progressive team who were ousted in recent months: Representatives Jamaal Bowman, Democrat of New York, and Cori Bush, Democrat of Missouri.
Pro-Israel groups did not make large dollar donations to Samuels as they did to Bush and Bowman’s rivals Wesley Bell and George Latimer.
Omar, who has held the Minnesota 5th District seat since 2018, narrowly defeated Samuels, a former city councilman, two years ago.
She will now face Republican Dalia Al-Aqidi in the heavily Democratic Minneapolis district.
Rep. Ilhan Omar eluded defeat in her primary on Tuesday, beating rival Don Samuels
The pro-Israel group AIPAC pledged to spend $100 million on the primaries to defeat candidates who did not support its cause. They spent $14 million on Bowman’s primary and $9 million on Bush’s.
But they have largely stayed away from the Omar-Samuels race, even though the Minnesota congresswoman has made no secret of her preference for the Palestinian cause.
Omar raised millions more dollars than Samuels, spending more than $4 million to Samuels’ $1 million.
Samuels said in an interview last year that he believes he could have won the 2022 race if he had AIPAC’s support.
Omar, the first Somali-American elected to Congress, took her seat in 2018, when she won with more than 70 percent of the vote. She was one of the first two Muslim women to hold a seat in Congress, along with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, House Democrats, who are usually united, have been divided over the issue of Israel. Samuels says Omar bears much of the blame.
“This is due to a very immature interpretation of reality that tends to be dualistic,” Samuels told DailyMail.com.
“There are good guys and bad guys. There are those who support the police and those who don’t. There are those who support genocide and those who oppose it.”
Omar is a favorite target of Republicans. In 2019, she was forced to apologize for saying AIPAC and Jews were trying to buy influence: “It’s all about money, baby.” This year, Republicans reacted with dismay when she said some Jewish students are “for genocide.”
Omar, who has held the Minnesota 5th District seat since 2018, narrowly defeated Samuels, a former city councilman, two years ago.
Omar raised millions more dollars than Samuels, spending more than $4 million to Samuels’ $1 million.
“I think it’s really unfortunate that people don’t care about the fact that all Jewish children should be safe and that we shouldn’t have to tolerate anti-Semitism or intolerance toward all Jewish students, whether they’re pro-genocide or anti-genocide,” she said.
In January, House Republican Leader Tom Emmer demanded an ethics investigation into reports that Omar said she was “Somalia first.”
Meanwhile, Bush had faced strong opposition due to his pro-Palestinian stance.
“Wesley Bell’s victory and Cori Bush’s defeat underscore what we’ve seen in elections across the country and throughout this election cycle: being pro-Israel is not just wise politics, it’s smart politics,” said Mark Mellman, chairman of the Democratic Majority for Israel PAC, in a statement.
Like Bush’s race against Bell, Bowman’s race in New York revolved around one key issue: the war between Israel and Hamas.
Bowman, a fellow staffer (at least for now, before leaving Congress this winter), fiercely defended the Palestinians and condemned Israel’s actions as “genocide.”
His reward for repeatedly attacking the Jewish nation’s wartime conduct: a pro-Israel SuperPAC that hounds him.
AIPAC, a pro-Israel political group, spent heavily against Bowman, pouring millions and millions into the campaign of a local county executive.
With the group’s support, Westchester County Executive Latimer, a moderate Democrat, cruised to an easy victory in the primary, garnering more than 59 percent of the vote, compared to Bowman’s 40 percent.
