Congresswoman Ilhan Omar beat former Minneapolis City Council Member Don Samuels in Tuesday’s primary election, clinching the Democratic-Farmer-Labor nomination to run for reelection in November. It’s the second time Omar has defeated Samuels in a primary for the Fifth Congressional District.
Omar will advance as the Democratic candidate in the November 5 general election, and is a heavy favorite to win reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives. The district, which includes Minneapolis and some surrounding suburbs, last elected a Republican in 1960.
"Tonight's victory belongs to our incredible campaign staff. It belongs to the incredible volunteers, our elected leaders, and it certainly belongs to the voters," Omar said as a packed crowd looked on at her watch party. "We run the politics of joy."
Omar is running for her fourth term, and will face journalist and activist Dalia Al-Aqidi, who ran unopposed in the Republican primary.
Omar received 56 percent of the vote, beating Samuels by 13 percentage points.
Omar and her supporters described the win as "joyful." Omar thanked her supporters and her husband and children.
She called Samuels’ campaign against her the "ugliest" and "most disgusting" campaign she has ever faced. Omar said her family members, including her husband, were targeted by Samuels’ campaign. She also said Samuels focused on hateful messaging.
Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley said Omar won the primary in a "blowout." As a congresswoman, she said, Omar has a track record of knowing what people in her district care about.
"That's why we're amplifying a message of joy, because we are joyful," Conley said.
Surrounded by family, staff and supporters, Samuels conceded the race to Omar around 10 p.m.
"Even tonight, on this tragic loss, I have a deep sense of gratitude to have been afforded the privilege to have participated in the American democratic process in an effort to make our union more perfect, to make our district more well served, to hear the voice of the unheard, to amplify the voices of the muted, to go to places where people feel neglected and let them know they are seen and heard,” Samuels said. “It is a privilege that I cannot put a value on.”
Omar’s response to another reporter asking her a question about why voters should vote for her instead of her rival, Samuels. pic.twitter.com/DjtfIZStEI
— Katelyn Vue (@katelyn_vue) August 14, 2024
He thanked his supporters and donors, and said their work would live on.
Samuels added that he is open to running for public office again.
"I think we make decisions based on a combination of our capacity and our compassions to the realities around us,” he said, “and I have the energy.”
Last-minute stumping, a hopeful Samuels
Earlier in the evening, Omar talked to voters outside of the Target store in Minneapolis’ Dinkytown. Omar posed for selfies with passersby and answered questions about her campaign.
She told reporters that her campaign was working hard to remind voters of the primary election, adding that low turnout two years ago led to her close race with Samuels.
“Most of the voters that we’re talking to already know why they’re voting for me,” Omar said. “They know that I’ve worked tirelessly on their behalf and I’ve been their champion. And they know Don is somebody who’s been in office and does not have a single thing he can campaign on. The only thing he’s campaigning on is he hates me.”
Later in the evening, about 100 people gathered at a restaurant on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis for Omar’s watch party.
Murwo Elmi, 37, said she has known Omar for the past six years, and supports her because of her stance on several issues, including human rights and the Israel-Hamas war. Omar is “advocating for people who need help,” Elmi said.
Nearly 50 people gathered at the Hilton Canopy hotel in Downtown Minneapolis for Samuels’ watch party, cheering as he walked in.
Samuels said he was exhausted, and that he had been up since 7 a.m. on the last day of his nine-month campaign.
Before the final results had been tallied, his campaign manager, Joe Radinovich, said Samuels’ win was “conceivable.” Since Samuels’ 2022 defeat, Radinovich said, the campaign has focused its efforts on suburban voters and the East African community.
“Everybody on the team, including Don, has given everything we can,” Radinovich said.
While waiting for the results, Samuels said he was confident that those voting blocks could be the deciding factors in his race against Omar.
“Everybody came to realize that their contribution could be simply significant and potentially become the winning factor,” Samuels said.
Long-time supporter and friend, Paula Cole, said many of her friends weren’t aware there was a primary election Tuesday. She believes the results from the primary could be more impactful than the presidential election.
“I don’t have anything against [Omar] per se, but I think she lacks that honesty and integrity,” Cole said.
Omar rocketed to fame in 2016 after becoming the nation’s first elected Somali in a state legislative seat when she won a term in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Two years later, her fame catapulted as she was elected to Congress and became a member of The Squad, an informal group of progressive Congressmembers.
Two members of the Squad — New York’s Jamaal Bowman and Missouri’s Cori Bush — recently lost reelection to more moderate challengers with strong financial backing from pro-Israel groups.
Samuels, who criticized Omar over her previous votes against funding Israel’s military, failed at replicating those results. His candidacy did not attract the same funding from pro-Israel groups as the successful challengers to Bowman and Bush.
Samuels, who represented a north Minneapolis ward on the City Council for 11 years, came within 2 percentage points of beating Omar in 2022. He ran as a pragmatic alternative to Omar’s progressivism and has criticized her for what he calls bad constituent services in lieu of chasing national fame.
“She’s a purist,” Samuels said in an interview before the primary. “So what happens then is everybody else is compromising to get things done, being pragmatic, and she stays pure and gets a fan base all around the country of people who admire people who speak truth to power and never compromise.”
Omar campaigned on her legislative accomplishments, including bringing more than $54 million of federal money for community projects to the district, and authoring and passing the MEALS Act, which Omar says fed more than 30 million children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Omar dismissed Samuels’ campaign as reactionary.
“It is a campaign basically designed on hateful rhetoric of anti-somebody instead of the joyful campaign we’re running that is for something,” she said before Tuesday’s election.
Omar raised nearly five times as much money as Samuels, according to campaign finance reports. Omar raised $6.7 million, more than double the amount she raised in 2022. Samuels raised $1.4 million.
