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WASHINGTON – Rep. Ilhan Omar turned back a serious challenge from Don Samuels in the Democratic primary in the 5th Congressional District, but the race was much closer than the lawmaker’s previous challenges.
With all the votes in, Omar won the primary 50.4% to Samuels’ 48.2%, falling far short of the 20-point victory she had over a Democratic rival two years ago. She is favored to beat Republican Cicely Davis, who won her party’s primary, in the general election in the deeply Democratic district.
Omar said in a statement that “Republicans and conservative Democrats have worked in lockstep to vote us out.”
“Tonight’s victory is a testament to how much our district believes in the collective values we are fighting for and how much they’re willing to do to help us overcome defeat,” Omar said. “This win is for them and everyone who still believes that hate, division and regression will not be the legacy of the Fifth.”
Samuels, meanwhile, told MinnPost that he thought the people of the district were more centrist-oriented.
“And it’s very hard to beat an incumbent,” Samuels added.
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In his concession speech, Samuels said, “the fact that we could be 2.5 points behind an incumbent in the United States Congress says that if the playing field were even; if this were not an incumbent challenger situation, we would win this race.”
He also told his supporters, “My only hope is that my opponent will have learned a lesson from this,” and would now give Omar “all the support we can.”
“We’re not going to sabotage,” he said.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Bill Kelley[/image_credit][image_caption]In his concession speech, Don Samuels told his supporters, "My only hope is that my opponent will have learned a lesson from this."[/image_caption]
Vance Opperman, the CEO and president of a private investment company and one of the founders of the Make a Difference MN05 PAC, said the last-minute effort to boost Samuels was a reaction by some loyal DFLers to positions Omar had taken on several issues.
“Many of us were unhappy that Omar did not support the infrastructure bill,” Opperman said, a reference to a massive road construction and broadband expansion bill that was at the top of President Biden’s legislative agenda.
Opperman said those who tried to give Samuels a boost before the election were also unhappy with Omar’s rejection of a Russia-oil sanction bill and the congresswoman’s support for a charter amendment that would have replaced the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety. Called Question 2, the amendment was defeated by a vote of 56 to 44 percent last year.
Meanwhile, Samuels, who cast himself as a moderate and provided a sharp contrast to Omar’s progressiveness, was a leader of opposition to Question 2.
At his election watch party at the Hilton Canopy, attended by about 200 supporters, Carolyn Holl said she was “feeling very disappointed,” with the results of the race.
“He’s just a solid, reasonable man who’s looking to the future with wide eyes, who understands what you can and can’t accomplish,” Holl said of Samuels.
Omar also defeated two other Democrats in the primary race, AJ Kern and Albert Ross.
Meanwhile, Republican Brad Finstad handily beat Jeremy Munson to face off against Democrat Jeff Ettinger, who vanquished his Democratic opponents to face off in November’s general election to fill the 1st District congressional seat in the next Congress.
But another race on the ballot to determine whether Finstad or Ettinger serves out the remainder of the late Rep. Jim Hagedorn’s term in this Congress has not been called.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Walker Orenstein[/image_credit][image_caption]In Minnesota’s First District, Republican Brad Finstad handily beat Jeremy Munson to face off against Democrat Jeff Ettinger.[/image_caption]
The reason for this is that the primary was held in the newly configured 1st District – whose boundary lines were changed by redistricting – while the special election was held in the precincts that belonged to the 1st District before redistricting. Early returns showed Finstad with a lead in the race.
Ettinger, a former Hormel executive who staked out a centrist position in his race against Finstad, has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and canceled the election watch party in his hometown of Austin. His campaign said it preferred not to comment on the race until the final results were in.
Finstad is a former state legislator and farmer who served in the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Trump administration.
In thanking his supporters at a watch party in Sleepy Eye on Tuesday night, Finstad acknowledged the uncertainty in the special election race, where results were trickling in.
“We’ll see how the rest of the night goes but I guess we wake up tomorrow and we’re going on to November,” Finstad said.
Later in the evening, Finstad took to the stage with his wife and seven children to tell supporters he looked forward to representing the district and said the country was “at a crossroads.”
The victor of the special election will hold an incumbent’s advantage over his rival.
Voters on Tuesday also gave Rep. Betty McCollum, D-4th, a win over her Democratic rival, Amane Badhasso, an Ethiopian refugee who came to Minnesota as a child after living in a with her family in a camp in Nairobi, Kenya. McCollum won the race with more than 83% of the vote.
“We worked hard until the end and it paid off for me,” McCollum said.
First elected to represent the 4th District in 2000, McCollum is an ally and confidant of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and has benefitted from the seniority system in Congress, which rewards lawmakers with staying power. That system helped win McCollum a choice chairmanship on the House Appropriations Committee with oversight of the nation’s massive defense budget.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Tom Olmscheid[/image_credit][image_caption]Voters on Tuesday also gave Rep. Betty McCollum a win over her Democratic rival, Amane Badhasso.[/image_caption]
Another incumbent, Rep. Pete Stauber, R-8th, easily won his primary against Harry Robb Welty. Jen Schultz won the Democratic primary in the district and will challenge Stauber in the fall.
Walker Orenstein reported from Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, and Ava Kian reported from Minneapolis.
Hmm…Omar survives another well funded, establishment backed challenge from her right and she’s the one that needs to learn? Jacob Frey, who loaned Samuals his campaign manager, Minneapolis Establishment Dems (the folks who vote in primaries), the Strib, Ex-Police Chief Orradondo, every other supporter of the Status Quo Policing, even a Republican back PAC, all aligned to defeat her and they failed. (Horseshoes and Hand grenades) It seems to me that Omar is not the one who needs to learn a lesson. People are sick of hearing how a little tweak here and there will fix the Police Department. We’ve been hearing that for 40 years and not one damn thing has changed. These so called Moderates need to learn that. Frey would never survive a challenge like Omar just survived.
Hey Hank,
I hate to break it to you but without moderate Democrats, Progressives will win ZIP in any national election. Progressives are as bad as the far right lunatics in the Republican Party. If the 2024 election becomes Progressives v Far right, I predict far right wins.
At the end of the day, the average voter prefers law and order. Something the Democrats do not seem to understand
Had Anoka not been added to the district Samuels wouldn’t have had a chance. The fact that the conservative Democrats locked into step with Republicans using the same rhetoric and talking points simply betrays the extent to which such Democrats are conservatives of a lesser god. It’s not surprising that this was such a tight race given the Party opposition Omar faced, did she get a single endorsement from any erstwhile “Democrats”? Meanwhile the bizarre spectacle of a guy who helped build the police department that abandoned the very voters he tried to appeal to was a sight to see, and don’t ask me why people in Anoka were so worried about the police in MPLS, but hey… there’s no explaining the Democratic Party eh? This just confirms to people like myself that I can vote for a Democrat here or there, but they are definitely NOT to be trusted and in the end… that distrust is what causes so many Democrat’s defeats. These ongoing spectacles of division and intolerance don’t bode well for future Democrats.
“ongoing spectacles of division and intolerance don’t bode well for future Democrats”
Yeah, so much for that “Big Tent” thing, if you aren’t lock stepped with the ultra left, clear out! Talk about polarizing, proof perfect.
“Meanwhile, Samuels, who cast himself as a moderate”
This is objectively false. Much of his literature calls him “progressive”, which is also objectively false.
Samuels doesn’t seem willing to thank the Republicans that helped him get so close to primarying a well-like younger progressive.
Seriously, there were ten times as many voters in the Democrat primary vs. the Republican primary, but there will not be ten times as many Dem voters in the coming general election, meaning plenty of Republicans didn’t vote for their own primary.
There actually are a LOT more Democrats than Republicans in Omar’s district. A competitive primary is the real election which is why it makes complete sense that it would attract interest. The Republican primary was also not competitive which means there was no reason for Republicans in that district to vote in the primary at all.
“Republicans and conservative Democrats have worked in lockstep to vote us out.” Whew. She doesn’t seem to need people like me, a liberal progressive who was an early supporter of Paul Wellstone, and an early supporter of Keith Ellison. I voted for her opponent because I believe he is a liberal, experienced politician who could better represent the district. I voted for her twice before and applauded her victories. She ought to reach out to Samuels and DFLers who voted for him, but are inclined to support her in November, instead of throwing us under a right-wing bus. She ought to know that tons of outside money is going to flood the district to persuade moderate swing voters that a right wing activist who happens to be a woman of color is better choice than a prickly progressive.
I won’t be one of them. I like Omar’s politics, mostly. I also think she is not a good fit for the job. I respect the people who support her. I have a different view, and so do thousands of voters who now will decide if they will stay with their party and vote for her, or feel like they are being dismissed because they are “in lockstep” with right wingers.
Paul Wellstone famously said that voters who don’t agree with a politician might be won over if the candidate makes a personal connection, or at least demonstrates he’s interested in the voter’s welfare. Hubert Humphrey was cut from the same cloth. Rep. Omar, you have time to learn.
What she’s saying is true. I don’t know how closely you follow national politics but there has been a concerted effort by Republicans and a Pro-Israel hardliner PAC called the United Democracy Project to unseat progressive Democrats this political season. They’ve been pretty successful at it, they knocked out Nina Turner in Ohio and several others. Another Republican backed PAC, maybe funded by UDP, went after Omar at the end of this campaign. I am sorry you took her comment personally, but that’s your issue, not Omar’s.
I am aware of that, but I am not basing my vote on what other people do with their money. I despise the RW websites that will use a pic of Omar without much reason other than to rile up the religious bigots among them. Trust me, they do. Her statement sounded like the angry sentiment of a loser, not a primary winner who presumably needs her party members’ support in the general. There may be some “conservative Democrats,” but none of them in Minnesota hold positions of power (since Colin Peterson). It’s an insult.
There is a 0% chance that the Republican candidate comes within 25 points.
At the moment I predict 10 points.
Roy, your last point – Paul Wellstone’s idea that you need to be personally interested in the lives of your opponents – is precisely Omar’s Achilles’ Heel. I support her because of her politics – who else speaks out in support of the Arabs? Who else even questions Israel’s enforced apartheid? And besides, if her progressive politics cannot survive in Minnesota’s 5th Ward, where do they have a chance? Omar’s message needs to be heard nationally.
Omar’s major fault, and it is major, is her tin ear to both her opponents and anyone offering her advice on how to act in the public eye. The comparison to Jackie Robinson is appropriate. Dodgers’ owner Branch Rickey advised Robinson to play like a gentleman and ignore all the trash thrown at you. Jackie did just not, and he thrived. Jackie Robinson’s insistence on staying on the high road essentially denied all the bigots any fodder for their racist comments.
I wish Omar could have thanked the 48% of voters who opposed her for all their passion, their participation in the democratic process, and for caring for their nation as much as they do. I wish Omar had a Branch Rickey speaking in her ear.
“Republicans and conservative Democrats have worked in lockstep to vote us out.”
Yeah, about what to expect, the either or from an ultra-left! Guess if you aren’t with her 100% you are against her, well you got that right, guess there are some of us left leaning folks that can think for ourselves.
This registered Democrat ( registered in 1972 ) will become an Independent if the Progressives end up taking over the party. My RepublIcan friends have left their party, also moving to Independent.
Listening to Omar going after Democrats should be a wake up call to the rest of the party.
The only hope I have is sooner or later, there will be enough of us to form a viable 3rd party. Maybe we could talk Arnie Carlson to jump on board.
Omar has it exactly right that Republicans and conservative Democrats were banding together to try to oust her. In my Northeast Minneapolis precinct, there were 650 voters in the two 5th Congressional District primaries. 34 on the GOP side and the rest on the DFL side. As much as I would like to think there’s that few GOP voters in my neighborhood, I know better than that. There were definitely Republican-leaning folks who chose to vote in the DFL primary simply to vote against Ilhan.
Along with that, a good percentage of the campaign funds raised by Samuels came from conservative-leaning organizations and individuals. If he were anywhere near as progressive as he attempted to paint himself to be in this race, he would have turned those down.