On August 3, President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign launched a new 30-second attack ad against the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden. Biden has “embraced the policies of the radical left,” the video narrator warns, adding that he will champion their efforts to raise “trillions in new taxes” and give “amnesty for 11 million illegal immigrants.”
Three figures whose cut-out images flank Biden for much of the clip represent that far-left coterie: Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. The ad ends with a simple plea: “The radical left has taken over Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. Don’t let them take over America.”
That Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and Omar appeared in the video came as a surprise to no one; the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has for years been one of Trump’s favorite boogeymen. And while all three progressive torch-bearers were shown in the video, only one of them — Omar — would make headlines days later for failing to get her hometown newspaper’s endorsement. Two days after Trump’s ad launched, the editorial board at Minneapolis’ Star Tribune backed Omar’s opponent, lawyer Antone Melton-Meaux, for the August 11 primary in the Fifth District. “While Omar wants to lead a movement, Melton-Meaux seeks to serve the Fifth District,” the editorial board wrote. Even in its slight of the congresswoman, the state’s paper of record had to acknowledge her ambition.
There might not be a more remarkable figure in national politics than Omar. A Somali-American refugee who, in 2018, became one of the first two Muslim women in Congress, Omar has been touted by the progressive left as the embodiment of the American dream. But she’s also among the most vilified members of Congress, and though she’s the odds-on favorite to win the primary for her House seat, the fact that Melton-Meaux has nearly matched her in donations — $4.2 million for her; $4.1 million for him — proves there are some very important people on both the left and the right who’d love nothing more than to see her fail.
“My year really was a really challenging one,” she said when we connected on the phone last month. “To function in an environment that wasn’t just hostile to change but was hostile to my husband.” Omar is referring to her husband, Timothy Mynett, a political consultant who she married in March. Omar’s relationship with Mynett has been a source of much speculation from their courtship early on: Omar was previously married, and the New York Post published allegations that she and Mynett had an affair.
It’s a complicated and confounding chapter in her political career, and, depending on whom you ask, proves either that Omar is just another self-dealing politician — her campaign has paid hundreds of thousands to Wynett’s firm since 2018 — or has been subject to outsize and unfair levels of scrutiny as Mynett’s firm is a legitimate organization. It’s a perfect encapsulation of the Ilhan Omar dichotomy, where her every move sparks interpretations as disparate as they are intense.
Of the members of the Squad, the progressive foursome of 2018 freshmen that also includes Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Omar is arguably the most polarizing. Part of that controversy is, to an extent, self-created. It was, after all, Omar who paid her husband’s consulting firm, declined to vote to recognize the Armenian genocide in October 2019, and, most infamously, has on multiple occasions employed anti-Semitic tropes on Twitter. Those missteps have given ammunition both to the president, who has amplified bogus right-wing claims that Omar sympathizes with Islamic terrorists, and to the Democrats’ moderate class, many of whom feel jilted by Omar’s politics, particularly her stance on Israel.
“Certainly, first-term members of Congress make mistakes, but she’s made incredibly prominent mistakes on hot-button issues, particularly her comments about Israel and Jews,” said Larry Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political science professor who taught Omar during an early-career public policy fellowship.
Those “mistakes” have clouded discussion around her ability to legislate. Which is a shame because she’s actually been quite effective. Omar sponsored 34 bills in Congress and cosponsored 426 bills and resolutions during the 2019 legislative year (the most recent data available). She tops the Minnesota delegation in amendments passed in the House and in the total number of bills and amendments introduced. She was the author of the MEALS Act, which called for providing school lunches during the pandemic and which was rolled into and passed as part of Congress’ Families First Coronavirus Response Act.
She’s also put forth bills that have little chance of passing but lay down a marker for the progressive agenda, proposing that the U.S. reimburse childcare costs for federal workers, eliminate the use of toxic landfills, and encourage mobile home park owners to sell their land to residents. And though there were some early hiccups in her relationship with Democratic leaders in Congress, those fences have since been mended.
Just last month, Omar’s reelection bid was endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the crown jewel on a list of reelection endorsers that also includes Sanders; the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), the state affiliate of the national Democratic Party; Sen. Tina Smith and Attorney General Keith Ellison of Minnesota; and all three of her fellow members in the Squad. Given that Omar’s seat hasn’t been held by a Republican since 1963, Pelosi’s support has less to do with partisan survival than it does personal goodwill. (Pelosi’s office did not respond to a request for comment.)
In our conversation, Omar didn’t hesitate to acknowledge the strategic necessities of a strong relationship with party leadership. “I serve as the whip of the Progressive Caucus,” Omar said, referring to the party’s far-left convocation. “By nature, you have to have a really good working relationship with not only the Speaker of the House but also with the other ideological caucuses. That is how we are able to win votes and have some of the progressive wins.”
Given the progressive party’s constant see-sawing for power — the punditry will claim one month that the faction is in disarray and the next declare it to be on the upswing — Omar’s words about Pelosi signal a maturity around the political process and perhaps reveal someone whose presence within the party isn’t so schismatic after all.