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Rep. Ilhan Omar is one of the best-known Democrats in the 2018 class, a lightning station member of the Squadron whose open liberal policy has made her an enemy of Donald Trump.
However, at his home in Minneapolis, his polarizing national profile complicates his bid to win a term.
Faced with a political newcomer who raised $3.2 million in the last quarter, a large portion of pro-Israel donors who oppose Omar’s foreign policy positions, Omar is defensive by opposing claims that she is too divisive to constitute the forged democratic district well. . Training
“We don’t want anyone to be distracted by the fights on Twitter,” said big challenger Antone Melton-Meaux, who is committed to focusing on local issues and the spotlight. “I don’t want to be a celebrity. I want to serve others, and others are fed up with department and distraction policies.
Omar, the first black Muslim woman to sit in Congress, has built a symbol as a progressive advocate who is not afraid to confront Trump. The president, in turn, has selected the first-year lawmaker, denigrating her as anti-Semitic, a “socialist who hates America” and falsely claims that he publicly supports Al Qaeda.
Omar, a Somali refugee who is the first member of Congress to use a hijab, attacked in xenophobic terms through Trump in 2019 when he encouraged her and other team members to “come back” from where they came here. As a result, supporters piled up around Omar in the district, which is the state’s top strongly Democratic.
However, many electorates have distanced the property by their comments on Israel. Omar was accused of anti-Semitism after suggesting that for Israel he was popular because of donations of the crusade, that pro-Israel lawmakers had a double loyalty to the United States and Israel, and that Israel had “hypnotized the world.”
“Representative. Comments beyond Omar have invoked centuries-old anti-Semitic rhetoric that echoed and the nightmares of persecution,” said Rabbi Avi Olitzky, who leads a congregation in the district.
Olitzky supported Melton-Meaux, who commented on Omar’s comments on Israel, and said the challenger brings desperately needed conflict-resolution capabilities to the political climate.
University of Minnesota political scientist Larry Jacobs said Omar’s comments had exasperated the district’s small and influential Jewish community.
“You have an opponent who plays in those divisions with resources to their notoriety and leads the fight opposite Omar,” Jacobs said. “Can you counter this with less cash and political skills that haven’t been impressive so far?”
A significant part of the Fifth District Jewish network has a complicated relationship with Omar, according to Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. But Hunegs added that the network is not monolithic and that some progressive Jews are the outgoing president.
Liz Loeb, Omar’s constituent, said that, as a Jewish person, she had been harmed by Omar’s rhetoric, but did not think the legislator was anti-Semitic.
“I want a representative to defend, worry and understand the reports of other marginalized people in communities,” Loeb said.
The lawmaker’s allies for the first time say Omar contacted the Jewish network and apologized in 2019. In a signal from the establishment of the National Party, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed Omar earlier this month: one year was spared Pelosi’s rebuke to congressman.
Omar also has the support of former representative Keith Ellison, who left his seat when he ran for the Minnesota attorney general in 2018.Omar won an open number one of six candidates that year with 48% of the vote and triumphed with nearly 60 percentage points. .
However, the mere pro-Israel have made defeat a precedent of this cycle, angry at the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. And Melton-Meaux has been educated through pro-Israeli PAP who oppose Omar’s foreign policy positions. A super PAC that is the U.S. alliance with Israel is even beginning to run classified ads for Omar attacks in the district.
Melton-Meaux, a hutterly little-known black mediation lawyer, produced a second-quarter fundraiser that overshadowed Omar’s total $471,000.
Omar’s allies, such as the chairman of Minnesota’s Peasant Labor Democratic Party, Ken Martin, criticized Melton-Meaux for receiving “great interests.”
“You can judge a person’s values based on the origin of the cash and who feeds and budgets their campaigns,” Martin said.
Jeremy Slevin, Omar’s communications director, responded to claims that Melton-Meaux is a unifier and criticized his past paintings as a lawyer representing employers.
“I am convinced that the symbol presented in its great challenge is false,” Slevin said.
Slevin also challenged the casting of Omar’s Melton-Meaux as disconnected from his congressional district and to the star.
“I think it’s humiliating for someone to recommend that because a leader is the subject of racist and xenophobic attacks by the president, he’s seeking fame,” Slevin said.
Although really extensive figures from the Melton-Meaux fundraiser catapulted him into the run for the siege that encompasses Minneapolis and his first ring suburb, Omar remains the favorite in the August 11 primary.
The meps’ recent internal vote showed that she led Melton-Meaux from 66 to 29%, with an approval rate of 74%. The Melton-Meaux crusade criticized the ballot as methodologically flawed, but was reduced to major percentage points in its own poll.
Melton-Meaux said his message, which focuses on Omar’s complaint about his voting record and his questionable comments on Israel, resonates.
He called for Omar’s vote opposed to the AEUMC industry agreement and the existing vote on a solution condemning the Armenian genocide. And he broke it because he lacked nearly 5% of the vote in his first term.
Martin, chairman of the DFL Party, said he was confident that Omar would win next month’s primaries, subsidized by the state party and what he said was a wave of voter mobilization following the police killing of George Floyd, which occurred three miles from Melton. . Meaux’s house.
Melton-Meaux said the incident led him to reflect on his reports with the police. As a law student at the University of Virginia, Melton-Meaux said police arrested him for a crime he committed.
“I know without a doubt, but in some cases it may have been a knee in my neck,” he says. “So watching former Officer Chauvin quell George Floyd’s life for eight and a half minutes in broad daylight in the city, I love heartbreaking.
Minneapolis attorney Don Lewis, who supports Melton-Meaux, says his biggest challenge with Omar is not his questionable comments about Israel, but his lack of connection to the district’s wishes. Lewis, who is black, said Melton-Meaux is an effective coalition builder whose beyond as a descendant of African slaves is significant.
Melton-Meaux is in more electorates like Minneapolis resident Pam Goldfarb Liss to win on August 11. He supported Omar in 2018 and systematically votes for the DFL party line. But now he says he is voting for Melton-Meaux because he feels that Omar is more involved in the fight against Trump than in protecting his constituents.
“I’d like to have a soft manners representative who builds bridges and does things for Minnesota,” Goldfarb Liss said.