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.
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:
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