Rep. Ilhan Omar cruised to a fifth term in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District on Tuesday, winning by roughly 60 percentage points even as she faces a federal criminal investigation into her family's immigration history and a long-running feud with President Donald Trump.
CBS News projected her victory Tuesday evening, and The Associated Press also called the race. With all 217 precincts reporting, unofficial results from the Minnesota Secretary of State showed the Democratic-Farmer-Labor incumbent with 262,702 votes, or 76.48%. Republican John Nagel, a former Minnesota State Patrol trooper, received 16.23%, and independent candidate DeVelle L. Jackson took 7.02%.
The district covers Minneapolis and its inner-ring suburbs and has sent Omar to Washington since she was first elected in 2018, when she became the first African refugee to serve in Congress. After the race was called, she cast the result as a rebuke of the president: "Thank you, Minnesota! I'm incredibly honored to continue to represent you in the People's House with a resounding mandate. We will not allow Trump to silence us."
Supporters at her election-night party held signs reading "Ilhan Fights for Us," "Defend Democracy" and "Re-elect Ilhan & Abolish ICE," MPR News reported.
"We will go together to Congress"
Omar also celebrated with members of the city's Somali community at Karmel Mall in Minneapolis, where she told the crowd, "We will go together to Congress," according to Dalsan TV.
Later in the night, the congresswoman joined supporters on the dance floor, dancing to a Somali song alongside Somali hip-hop artist Qeys Ilkacase.
A raid, a criminal probe and talk of denaturalization
The win comes weeks after Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Omar's home in Washington, D.C., in October. The Justice Department has said the search is part of a criminal investigation. Officials have referenced her immigration history, including unproven claims that her 2009 marriage was fraudulent and that her father lied about her age on citizenship applications. The New York Times reported that officials found some evidence in 2016 that the marriage was fraudulent, but the case was dropped.
Omar, who became a U.S. citizen in 2000, has not been charged, and no evidence of wrongdoing has been made public. She denies any wrongdoing, calling the raid an "outrageous abuse of power" and the probe an "intimidation tactic." Border czar Tom Homan has said the administration is looking at possibly stripping her of her citizenship, a move legal experts told MPR News would be unprecedented against a sitting member of Congress.
The investigation is the latest chapter in her clash with Trump, who in 2019 told Omar to "go back" to her home country, has called her "garbage" and has said she should be investigated. He renewed those attacks after the raid. On Tuesday, voters in her district handed her more than three-quarters of the vote.
Days before the vote, Omar told The Nation that "Trump has an unhealthy and creepy obsession with me." She added: "I represent everything Trump and today's Republican Party seem to despise," describing herself as "a woman, an immigrant, a refugee, a Muslim woman who wears a hijab" and "someone who refuses to be intimidated into silence." "I know who I am and why I do this work," she said.
Videos: Dalsan TV. Images: Clash Report, Minnesota Secretary of State, Ilhan Omar
