MINNEAPOLIS — U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar has announced her intention to seek a third term representing Minnesota’s Fifth District. Omar was first elected to the House in 2019 and was the first Somali American in Congress.
Omar said in a news release Monday that she chose to run to help build a better world by addressing a host of issues including economic and income inequality and climate change.
“When I first ran for this office there was one thing I kept coming back to. Something I said to myself and to the voters over and over: I believe that a better world is possible," Rep. Omar said in her announcement. “I still believe that. I still believe in a world where the working class is given what they’re owed. A world where we address the economic and income inequality issues that are holding American workers back and systematically forcing families into poverty."
Her first term generated widespread attention when she launched her 2020 re-election campaign with the slogan “Send her back to Congress!” — a riff on comments made by then-president Donald Trump that Omar and three other congresswomen of color should “go back” to their countries.
Omar was reelected in 2020 with 64.5% of the vote, two years after winning 78% of the vote in her first congressional election in 2018.
“I still believe in a world where we choose peace over war, diplomacy over bellicosity, and the human rights of all people over the profits of the military-industrial complex. A world where we put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy, oppose war and militarism and pursue accountability for human rights abuses wherever they occur," she said in a statement. “If you believe a better world is possible, join me."
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