What happened
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) fended off a repeat primary challenge from former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels on Tuesday, Aug. 13.
In winning the Democratic primary for her 5th Congressional District, Omar “avoided the fate of two colleagues in the House’s liberal ‘Squad’ who lost earlier this year after pro-Israel groups heavily targeted them,” The Washington Post said.
Who said what
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other pro-Israel groups spent $25 million to unseat Squad members Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.). But AIPAC has been “strategic about which races it’s investing in,” and Omar’s wasn’t one of them this year, Politico said. Bush and Bowman also had “other vulnerabilities that would have made their reelection bids difficult” even without the “flood of money against them.”
Omar’s race was “one of the most high-profile contests” in this week’s primaries in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin, the Post said.
What next?
Omar, whose district is heavily Democratic, will face Republican Dalia Al-Aqidi in November. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), the only Squad member still to have a primary, will “cruise to reelection,” Politico said, because she’s running unopposed in both the Sept. 3 primary and the general election.
Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a progressive ‘Squad’ member, has won her primary