Representative Ilhan Omar‘s Democratic challenger has sent her a warning after a fellow “Squad” member, Congresswoman Cori Bush, failed to be reelected to her district for a third term in this year’s primaries.
Bush’s loss in Missouri on Tuesday to Wesley Bell, the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, makes her the second member of the progressive group to lose their seat after Representative Jamaal Bowman earlier this year.
Following the result, challengers to other members of the progressive group of Democrats issued warnings, including Don Samuels, who is running against Omar in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District.
“Congratulations, Wesley! It’s clear that Democrats around the country are ready to move on from those who put politics above the people. In just one week, MN CD5 has the opportunity to do the same. To everyone in Minneapolis and the suburbs, I hope to earn your support,” Samuels wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Representative Ilhan Omar on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on March 12, 2019. Omar’s Democratic challenger has issued a warning to her after a fellow “Squad” member lost her seat.
Susan Walsh/AP
Newsweek has contacted representatives of Omar via email for comment.
Squad members are battling to keep their seats as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the United Democracy Project spend large amounts of money to defeat them over their criticism of Israel amid the war in Gaza.
According to The New York Times, AIPAC’s super PAC dropped more than $8 million to defeat Bush, who was among the Squad members calling for the U.S. to halt funding to Israel after it launched retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza. The airstrikes have now killed more than 39,000 people, the Associated Press reported, citing Palestinian health officials.
Bowman also accused Israel of committing “apartheid” and “genocide” and supported a ceasefire in the conflict. In June, he lost his seat to his AIPAC-funded challenger, George Latimer.
Though Omar has expressed similar views about the Israel-Hamas war, AIPAC and UDP have largely stayed out of her primary race. Omar has significantly outraised Samuels, entering July with $1.8 million cash on hand after raising $1.6 million in the second quarter of the year, her campaign announced. Samuels entered the same period with just over $334,000 cash on hand and raised $535,000 in the second quarter, his campaign said.
“I think they know that Congresswoman Omar is an extremely strong incumbent and has shored up a lot of local support and also has a pretty incredible record in the district of not only things like constituent services, but also leading on policies and initiatives that actually help everyday people in that district,” Usamah Andrabi, the communications director of Justice Democrats, a PAC that supports members of the Squad, told the Star Tribune last week. “I think they know that she is a deeply formidable threat, and that’s not to say that they won’t spend money against her even so.”
Polls have shown that Omar is ahead of her opponent in the primary race, with a Lake Research Partners survey conducted between July 17 and 21 showing her with 60 percent support to Samuels’ 33 percent. A Victoria Research and Consulting poll from February put the congresswoman at 49 percent to her opponent’s 30 percent.
Meanwhile, Samuels has had to answer for remarks he made about Omar’s appearance and for calling her a “pawn for Hamas,” which the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned.
Samuels’ campaign said it had met with pro-Israel advocacy groups, including AIPAC, and that there was still time for them to step in and help. He added that their lack of support showed they had misread the district.
“They’re out of touch with the district, out of touch with the mood of the district, out of touch with just how negative Ilhan is perceived. And certainly, certainly out of touch with the viability of my campaign and me as a candidate,” Samuels said in an interview with the Star Tribune.
AIPAC previously vowed to spend as much as $100 million this year to unseat members of the progressive group.