Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Rep. Ilhan Omar Misleads Voters,
Does Not Have Endorsements from Gov. Walz or President Biden
MINNEAPOLIS–Aug. 9, 2024–In an attempt to mislead voters, Rep. Ilhan Omar has been investing her campaign funds in advertising two high-profile endorsements that she does not, in fact, have–-Governor Tim Walz and President Joe Biden. Despite being the party endorsed incumbent, Omar has not had the governor’s primary endorsement since 2020. The campaign for her primary opponent, Don Samuels, is calling on her to stop the ads and remove the Biden endorsement from her website.
“There’s no question why Rep. Omar would want voters to think she’s supported by Governor Walz and President Biden–they’re two Democratic leaders who built their success by embodying a pragmatic approach to progress. While they, along with former President Barack Obama, were opposing the Defund the Police movement, Rep. Omar was the face of that deadly cause. When President Biden’s historic infrastructure bill was in front of the House, Rep. Omar voted against it. Now, with an election on the line, Rep. Omar wants to drape herself in the success of politicians who she has routinely opposed,” said Samuels.
In Facebook ads running today and featuring pictures of Omar and Walz, who she opposed in the 2018 Democratic Primary, she writes, “I’m so proud that–with the governor’s support and unwavering political courage–our movement has turned Minnesota into a model of what real progressive change looks like in our country.”
In the “Endorsements” section of her website, Omar has a quote from Biden given at an official side event where elected leaders routinely exchange niceties from the microphone. The website does nothing to identify that the president has not endorsed her campaign for reelection and leaves readers with the impression that he has. Previously, the quote sat at the top of the webpage. In Minnesota’s March Presidential Primary, Omar refused to vote for Biden and then protested at his State of the Union address later that week–and in the 2020 November election, no Democratic congressional candidate trailed Biden by more than Omar, a difference of more than 70,000 votes.
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“Voters in this district deserve someone who will tell the truth. Rep. Omar has routinely failed on that count. She concealed luxury trips paid for by Pakistan and Qatar, the latter to attend a World Cup game in a stadium built by slave labor. She has also refused to answer questions about the $3 million dollars in campaign funds that she paid to her consultant-turned-husband’s firm or about the accusations of fraud against his businesses,” said Samuels.
Samuels and Omar are in a rematch of their 2022 race, which was separated by just 2.1%, despite the predictions of pundits and the pronouncements of the Omar campaign at the time, which claimed a 39-point lead, just weeks before squeaking by with a 2,466 vote margin. In this year’s contest, early voting has been underway since June and Election Day is August 13th.