Ilhan Omar (born 1982) is a Somali-American politician from Minnesota. In 2016, she was elected a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, making her the first Somali-American legislator elected to office in the United States. She is the Director of Policy and Initiatives of the Women Organizing Women Network.
Omar is the Democratic Farmer Labor nominee for U. S. Representative in Minnesota's 5th congressional district, having won the primary on August 14, 2018.
Video Ilhan Omar
Early life and education
Omar was born in 1982 in Mogadishu and was raised in Baydhabo, Somalia. She was the youngest of seven siblings and grew up in an upper-middle-class household. Ilhan's father, Nur Omar Mohamed, is Somali, and worked as a teacher trainer. Her mother was Yemeni, and died when Omar was a child. She was thereafter raised by her father and grandfather. Ilhan's grandfather, Abukar, was the director of Somalia's National Marine Transport, with her uncles and aunts also working as civil servants and educators. After the start of the civil war in 1991, she and her family fled the country and spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya.
In 1995, Omar and her family emigrated to the United States, initially settling in Arlington, Virginia. In 1995, they moved to Minneapolis, where Ilhan learned English in only three months. Her father and grandfather emphasized during her upbringing the importance of democracy, and she accompanied her grandfather to caucus meetings at age 14, serving as his interpreter.
Omar attended Edison High School, and volunteered there as a student organizer. She graduated from North Dakota State University with a bachelor's degree in political science and international studies in 2011.
Omar was a Policy Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
Maps Ilhan Omar
Early career
Omar began her professional career as a community nutrition educator at the University of Minnesota, working in that capacity from 2006 to 2009 in the Greater Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. In 2012, she served as campaign manager for Kari Dziedzic's reelection campaign for the Minnesota State Senate. Between 2012 and 2013, she was a child nutrition outreach coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Education.
In 2013, Omar managed Andrew Johnson's campaign for Minneapolis City Council. After Johnson was elected, she served as his Senior Policy Aide from 2013 to 2015. During a contentious precinct caucus that turned violent in February 2014, she was attacked by five people and incurred some injuries. According to MinnPost, the day before the caucus, Minneapolis City Council member Abdi Warsame had told Johnson to warn Omar not to attend the meeting.
As of September 2015, Omar is the Director of Policy & Initiatives of the Women Organizing Women Network. The association advocates for women from East Africa to take on civic and political leadership roles.
Minnesota House of Representatives
Elections
In 2016, Omar ran on the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) ticket for the Minnesota House of Representatives. Her chief opponent in the general election was Republican nominee Abdimalik Askar, also an activist in the Somali-American community. In late August, Askar announced his withdrawal from the campaign due to his graduate studies and the death of his father.
On August 9, Omar defeated Mohamud Noor and incumbent Phyllis Kahn in the DFL primary. Shortly after she won the nomination, the conservative blog Power Line questioned the legal status of her marriage vows and wedding license. According to her colleague Andrew Johnson, the story's timing suggested that its motive was to tarnish her image. Omar herself speculated that the allegations were planted by previously elected officials in her community and singled out Abdi Warsame, suggesting that he felt threatened by her growing political clout.
In November 2016, Omar won the general election, becoming the first Somali-American legislator in the United States. Her term began on January 3, 2017.
Tenure and political positions
Omar supports a $15 hourly minimum wage and free tuition for college students whose family income is below $125,000 as well as greater accessibility to student loan forgiveness programs. As of May 2018, she had authored 38 bills, though none have been passed into law. She is an Assistant Minority Leader for the DFL caucus.
Omar has been critical of the actions of the Israeli government, referring to it as "the apartheid Israeli regime," asserting that Israel has "hypnotized the world" to its "evil doings," and supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (she recommended that the University of Minnesota divest from bonds belonging to Israel, and criticized an anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions law.) However, speaking at a candidates forum held in a synagogue during the last week of the 2018 primary campaign, she reversed her position asserting that a boycott is not helpful in working towards a two-state solution, and that, "It is going to be important for us to recognize Israel's place in the Middle East and the Jewish people's rightful place within that region."
Committee assignments
- Civil Law & Data Practices Policy
- Higher Education & Career Readiness Policy & Finance
- State Government Finance
Congress
On June 5, 2018, Omar filed to run for U.S. Representative from Minnesota's 5th congressional district after Representative Keith Ellison announced that he would not seek reelection. On June 17, she was endorsed by the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party after two rounds of voting. She went on to win the August 14 primary.
Awards
In 2014, Omar was named a rising star in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's Women's Hall of Fame.
She received the 2015 Community Leadership Award from Mshale, an African immigrant media outlet based in Minneapolis. The prize is awarded annually on a readership basis.
In 2017, Time Magazine named Omar among its "Firsts: Women who are changing the world", a special report on 46 women who broke barriers in their respective disciplines, and featured her on the cover of its September 18 issue. Her family was named one of the "five families who are changing the world as we know it" by Vogue in their February 2018 issue featuring photographs by Annie Leibovitz.
Personal life
Omar is Muslim. In 2002, at age 19, she began a relationship with Ahmed Hirsi (né Ahmed Aden). They were engaged to be married that year, and applied for a marriage license, but the application was not finalized. The pair had three children together before separating in 2008. In 2009, Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a British citizen. Conservative outlets, including the Power Line blog, accused Omar of marrying someone they speculated was her brother or otherwise related to her to help with his immigration status. Omar described the allegations as "absolutely false and ridiculous". In 2011, she had a faith-based divorce of Elmi, and in 2017 the two were legally divorced. In 2011, she reconciled with Hirsi, and they were married in a traditional ceremony. Omar, Hirsi, and their three children live in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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