Minnesota: Republican Iraqi American Reportedly Set to Challenge Rep. Ilhan Omar
Dalia al Aquidi: “Agents of anger and discord like Rep. Ilhan Omar are tearing at America from within….When I became an American citizen, I took an oath to defend the Constitution and defend our country from all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has been at the center of numerous controversies, and there are a growing number of Republican challengers ready to challenge her in her reelection bid. The most recent is reportedly Dalia al Aqidi.
Al Aqidi’s launch video is earning a great deal of praise.
THIS VIDEO IS AMAZING. @dalia4Congress is running against Ilhan Omar in MN-5. Donate here: https://t.co/y0gdWAABhk pic.twitter.com/gdRJbQWc9K
— David Reaboi (@davereaboi) January 16, 2020
https://twitter.com/dbongino/status/1218259425162616834
To all my American followers please look up this brave and patriotic woman: Dalia Al-Aqidi.
Here is a quote from her:"I am loyal to the country that gave me a chance, gave me a brighter future,".
Dalia is challenging Ilhan Omar. I am with Dalia.— Ayaan Hirsi Ali (@Ayaan) January 17, 2020
The Washington Examiner reports:
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, in her first reelection bid, isn’t the only Muslim refugee running in her Minneapolis district.
Dalia al Aqidi on Thursday announced she’s seeking the Republican nomination. She joins a crowded field of GOP rivals running for the right to challenge Omar, 38, an Israel-bashing firebrand lawmaker whose family fled Somalia to escape civil war and spent four years in a refugee campaign in Kenya before immigrating to the United States.
Al Aqidi, 51, fled Saddam Hussein’s Iraq with her family when she was in her early 20s, coming to the U.S. and becoming a citizen. She went on to a career in television journalism and moved to the Minneapolis district several months ago.
If elected, al Aqidi would be the third straight Muslim American to represent the district in the House, following Omar and her predecessor Keith Ellison, now Minnesota’s attorney general.
“I chose to launch this campaign after thinking, watching, and researching,” al Aqidi told the Washington Examiner. “I truly believe that Ilhan Omar is doing irreparable harm to her district, to Minnesota, and to the whole country. Somebody needs to stop her. She continues to spread anti-Semitism and hateful rhetoric.”
. . . . “Her language is so toxic and severe, not only to gain attention for herself, but she wants to position herself as a celebrity,” al Aqidi said. “She’s not fighting for us. She’s not fighting for her district. She is fighting for herself and herself only, which means she’s fighting against us.”
Al Aqidi, a former political reporter for Voice of America and a White House correspondent for Middle Eastern television networks who also covered conflicts in Iraq and Lebanon, enters a crowded field of Republicans looking to topple Omar.
“I’ve been a journalist for 31 years, and I’ve covered war zones and covered conflicts around the world, so right away my main issue is national security, and there are many dangerous individuals, both Islamists and others, are trying to harm the U.S. and are trying to harm our system and to harm our democracy,” al Aqidi said. “I truly believe that President Trump is making efforts to make America safer by taking action against these people or these groups.”
You can read more about al Aqidi on her campaign’s “About” page. On her campaign’s Home page, she has the following message:
Agents of anger and discord like Rep. Ilhan Omar are tearing at America from within. On the surface, we look the same. We’re both women, refugees, Muslims, but we couldn’t be further apart. She sows seeds of division, defending our enemies. When I became an American citizen, I took an oath to defend the Constitution and defend our country from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Here are some of her recent tweets and retweets:
I appeared on Fox & Friends this morning to discuss my campaign launch. WATCH NOW to hear why I’m running and why it’s SO important to defeat Ilhan Omar >> https://t.co/dggf9VgeIk
— Dalia al-Aqidi (@DaliaAlAqidi) January 17, 2020
CAIR @CAIRNational does NOT represent me and never will. https://t.co/BWNpSBDZOs
— Dalia al-Aqidi (@DaliaAlAqidi) January 17, 2020
I did not know this. In 2014, @Dalia4Congress began to wear a cross around her neck in solidarity with Christians who were being mudered by ISIS. https://t.co/mEK2qzD598 pic.twitter.com/X4CYYTCUtl
— David Reaboi (@davereaboi) January 17, 2020
?? Iraqis that suffered from Soleimani’s atrocities are much safer now. Thank you @realDonaldTrump. Hizbollah and Hamas are looking over their shoulders. https://t.co/GtQI17z4lP
— Dalia al-Aqidi (@DaliaAlAqidi) January 18, 2020
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Comments
Gonna be a hard slog when Obama packed that district with “refugees”
didn’t know “refugees” became automatic US citizens, is that like the “day” voters in VA
This is ridiculous posturing. There is no way a Republican could ever win that district, so any resources spent supporting a Republican are wasted. The only way Omar can be defeated is in the Democratic primary, and the challenger to support there is Leila Adan.
Wow. Talk about giving up without a fight. Of course a Republican can’t win if none ever try.
Do you think a Democrat could win a seat in Wyoming? Or in northern Dallas? Or in western Maryland? Or that a Republican could win in DC, or in San Francisco? No, it’s impossible, and running more than a token candidacy is nothing but a waste of resources that should be going to a winnable race.
They try.
Wyoming does have a history of electing Democrats as Governor. It’s not Congress, but it ain’t nothing.
They don’t spend significant resources on it. And anyone who wants to oust a specific Republican congressman doesn’t do it by supporting a Democrat, they do it by supporting a primary challenger.
north Dallas, Richardson, Garland, highland park, sachse, wylie, (TX 23 ) voted lightly for Hillary in 2016 (approx 51%) and voted in Collin Alred Dem in 2018.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_delegations_from_Texas#/media/File:Texas_US_Congressional_District_32_(since_2013).tif
Many of us understand some of your thinking….but I hope you agree that stopping non-citizens, illegals and all attempts at voter fraud…etc would be an important first step in ALL races, not just MN and the other places you mention, especially.
We MUST start NOW taking back our country and firmly get constitutionally solid candidates in at all levels…
Just the campaign of good conservatives will be a great educational process for those that need it…if they pay any attention at all.
You don’t mind if the rest of us support actual Republicans, do you? It makes us feel better.
It will make you feel better, but it won’t affect the result in any way.
(deleted) History is full of instances of people winning elections where they never had a chance. Stuff happens. Anyway, like I said, it makes us feel like we’re in a real “democracy”.
You’re in a real democracy, but in that seat the real election is the Dem primary, just as in Wyoming the real election is the R primary.
A good, articulate candidate with strong conservative values can at least get our message out – but it takes money.
Just like there is no way Texas could ever be purple? Or eventually blue? I distrust “no way . . . ever” pronouncements, but have at it.
Texas might go purple one day, but that day isn’t going to be this November 3rd. Minnesota’s 5th district might conceivably go Republican at some hypothetical time in the far future, but there absolutely no chance of it doing so any time soon.
I expect that Ilhan will be indicted for a variety of crimes in the near future, at the federal and state level.
It does seem like the bloom is falling off her rose, but the left far to frequently can seem to do any crimes they want and have no repercussions against them.
I certainly hope she ends up prosecuted for her numerous crimes, but I’ve seen this movie too… like with Comey, Brennan, Obama, Hillary, McCabe, they seem to be on a different tier of justice system that the rest of us are subject to.
I think the hoarding of towels is a federal crime …. or should be.
Hillary Clinton so far ahead in polls that she ‘doesn’t even think about’ Donald Trump anymore:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/23/hillary-clinton-so-far-ahead-in-polls-that-doesnt-even-think-abo/
Milhouse,
2 ways that resources spent there are not wasted.
1- If we don’t have a candidate, the dems can use $ they would have spent there to aid in other races (it’s not just the republicans who can reallocate the $).
2- I live in Northern Virginia in a very blue county. The republican party hasn’t run a candidate for US congressman or state delegate here for years. I know many republicans who have given up voting becasue they have bought into the idea that their vote is meaningless. That may be true in my district election contests, but my vote still matters in statewide offices for governor, AG, us senator, etc. Discouraged voters who don’t vote make it harder to win those offices. Morale is important. If you fight, even a lost election keeps people motivated and provides valuable lessons; if you just surrender you reinforce a losing attitude.
Trump couldn’t win the last election; but he did.
The black vote was lock for dems; but he’s making big inroads.
Trump has shown what can be done if you stay the course and keep fighting.
It’s not as if there won’t be a R candidate in the general election. Of course there will be one, so Omar will have to spend whatever extremely minimal resources it takes to run a campaign of some sort. But it won’t be a serious campaign because she has no chance of losing it. Spending our resources on that race is a waste. Where the resources should go is to the only race in which Omar can be defeated, and that is the primary. Leila Adan is running against her, and anyone who seriously wants Omar gone should be supporting her, even though she is a Democrat.
The same applies to AOC. There is absolutely no point in backing Republican challengers; the place where she is vulnerable is in the Dem primary, and that’s where any resources should go.
There’s just something insane about working to replace a radical dem with a moderate dem who will be harder to defeat unless you are saying that once a seat becomes dem we should never try to retake it.
I’m saying that everyone in politics knows there are seats you just can’t win, no matter what. Where the opposite side’s primary is the real election. Pretending this is not so is just stupid.
That is why most of the Republicans where I live are registered as Democrats. Since the real elections around here are the D primaries, they want to have a say in those elections. I’m the stubborn person who insists on registering Republican, because:
(1) it gives me a say on the rare occasion when there’s a R primary that matters, e.g. when the presidential primary is still in doubt by the time it comes around here.
(2) In a Dem primary, no matter who I vote for it’s going to be a Dem. Even the best choice is a bad one. While I’d rather be represented by a moderate Dem than by a radical one, I choose to give up that right so that once in a rare while I get to vote for someone who is actually good.
Milhouse: I’m saying that everyone in politics knows there are seats you just can’t win, no matter what.
There are seats that cannot be won today with today’s tactics. There are no seats that cannot be won tomorrow. Giving up prevents you from thinking outside the box of the conventional.
If there are seats that cannot be won, the smart move would be to figure out how that was done and duplicate it.
How it’s done is demographics. Certain demographics will vote Democrat no matter who or what is the candidate. So to win in November one has to win the Dem primary.
If you’re so willing to accept a moderate dem as a win, why not accept a moderate republican and actually win the seat? Why not steal the demographic from the dems? Steal the black vote (Trump seems to be making inroads there); steal the Latino vote; steal the Jewish vote. The changes you would make to steal them would still put you ahead of the results you would get with a moderate dem.
That’s how democrats overtook Virginia. Republicans stopped even submitting nominees.
In the bigger picture, and this counts for too many democrats in the the primary and republicans in the general election, if republican opposition doesn’t coalesce around a single republican nominee after the primary, Omar will absolutely win. If republicans and independents continue to play their game of “my candidate didn’t win the primary so eff’em all”, Omar will win. Bet cash on it. Either come together to beat her, or don’t. There’s no in-between where Omar doesn’t win.
People like Omar should be challenged in BOTH the Primary and General Election. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
There could be an avenue for her to take that seat. I don’t think that Ilhan’s view of her faith tradition is in line with many in her district. Her country of origin helps her, but only so far. Her faith, which she seems to only think applies to seditious acts, rather than adhering to the more important tenants, her sexual proclivity, her marriage to her brother, all tend to make those who take their Muslim faith seriously are vulnerable to accepting another Muslim who might represent them in a closer alignment to what they believe.
Of course, there is a new push from one of the “news” networks that is claiming that voting for Trump because he is what they call a racist is Un-Constitutional so a vote for a Muslim who is a Republican will surely be deemed as such as well.
Tenets, not tenants. Religions, including Islam, sometimes have tenants, whose rent goes to support their religious activities, but that’s not what you meant.
Indeed serious Moslems will have a problem with her recent relationship changes. The “marriage” to her brother, though, should not be an issue with Moslem voters, because it was a sham. The whole time they were “married” she was living with her real husband, whom she recently left for the first, not the second time.
Huh? Who’s claiming that? It makes no sense.
Never mind, I found it. Indeed it makes no sense.
It would be nice to see a Muslima we could be proud of in the House. It’s somewhat like having a Ben Carson at the head of HUD.
Who knows what might happen, after that?
I have an idea!
Why don’t we just call her an American? If you HAVE to label her, label her an American of Iraqi descent.
Meet the new muslim. Likely same as the old muslim. Taqiyya and all that.
This is her election to lose. She can beat omar as easily as that idiot romney could have beat obama.
Dalia won’t let omar hide behind candy crowley, even as fat as crowley is.
Romney: you are a pathetic loser, and a very small man.
I’d rather not have any Muslims in Congress. They don’t assimilate well.
Some fights are over in seconds, some take centuries.
unfortunately, I have to agree with Milhouse, The only way to defeat Omar is through the Dem primary, that in itself will be a big hurdle with the incumbent advantage.
The voting population is +26Dem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota%27s_congressional_districts
Whether we defeat omar in the next election or not, the movement is growing.
Remember: hillary clinton is still ahead by a landslide. Or, Dewey beats Truman.
Look to history.
Considering the damage Omar does to the dem party unity and image, why would I want to have any other dem run for the seat? Keep her there and make her the face of the dem party. When I defeat her it will be with a conservative republican candidate; until then having her in place helps me.
Same with AOC. She’s far more of a pain to the Dems and Pelosi than she is for Republicans. That’s why they’re talking about trying to gerrymander her out of a seat.