Ilhan Omar .. After assisting in the defeat of Reps. Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has refrained from making a significant effort to target Omar.
On Tuesday, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) emerged victorious in her Democratic primary for reelection, thereby avoiding the fate of her two colleagues in the House’s liberal “Squad” who were defeated earlier this year after being severely targeted by pro-Israel groups.
Cut through the 2024 election din. Subscribe to The Campaign Moment newsletter.
Omar confronted three primary challengers, led by Don Samuels, a former Minneapolis City Council member who nearly unseated her in 2022. Those groups, primarily the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, essentially refrained from participating in the race.
When the Associated Press projected her victory on Tuesday night, Omar had 56% of the vote. Samuels possessed 43%.
Samuels was within 2,500 ballots of defeating Omar during his initial campaign against her two years ago. This time, she approached him with greater gravity, outranking him significantly and preparing for a potential attack from the same political forces that ousted Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) last week and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) in June.
The United Democracy Project, the super PAC of AIPAC, has not disclosed the reason for its failure to target Omar in the wake of its aggressive campaigns against Bush and Bowman in the two most costly House primaries of the year. According to Samuels, it was a lost opportunity for national organizations.
This year, the group has appeared to be selective in its conflicts, refraining to target Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), another Squad member, in her April primary.
On Tuesday, the primary in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont, and Wisconsin was one of the most prominent. A closely observed Senate matchup between Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) and GOP businessman Eric Hovde was made official by electors in Wisconsin.
Omar has been a vocal critic of Israel in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, particularly in relation to its management of the Gaza War following Hamas’s attack on Israel last year. Omar was among the first House Democrats to advocate for a ceasefire in the conflict, following in the footsteps of Bush and Bowman.
She concentrated her campaign on other matters, including the local funding she secured for the district and abortion rights. One advertisement referred to her as a “progressive leader who delivers for Minnesota.”
Samuels accused Omar of being self-serving and divisive. He also criticized her for her occasional deviations from her own party, such as her 2021 vote against President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law.
Omar and five other House Democrats, including Bush and Bowman, opposed the infrastructure measure due to its failure to be accompanied by a more comprehensive social expenditure package.
Bush and Bowman were inundated with advertisements regarding their opposition to the bill by the super PAC affiliated with AIPAC. In order to mitigate the potential political vulnerability, Omar ran an advertisement in early July that depicted Biden commending her during a visit to Minnesota the previous year.
During the final stages of the primary, Omar’s fundraising advantage became apparent. She outspent Samuels by $222,000 during the initial 24 days of July, compared to $1.4 million.
Toward the conclusion of the campaign, Omar collaborated with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in an effort to secure a decisive victory for the liberal party, which sustained recent electoral losses. Sanders stated at a rally in Minneapolis that his objective was to guarantee that Omar “wins and, in fact, wins big.”
Republicans paid some heed to Omar’s primary, despite the fact that the 5th District is not competitive in the general election. Royce White, a Republican candidate for the Senate, recently proposed that Republican voters in the 5th District partake in the Democratic primary to defeat her. He stated that he would “gladly give up 5,000 votes in the CD5 primary to accomplish this goal.”
The influence of potential crossover electors on the outcome was not readily apparent.