By Loretta Arradondo, a native of Minnesota and a longtime community activist in the Fifth Congressional District.
In the Fifth Congressional District, which includes Minneapolis and many of its surrounding suburbs, the winner of the August Democratic primary has become our representative in every election since 1960.
This year’s primary is a rematch between former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels and Rep. Ilhan Omar. As someone who grew up in south Minneapolis, has family throughout the city, and now lives in Richfield, I believe there is only one choice in this election.
I strongly encourage everyone to join me in voting for Samuels on or before Aug. 13.
In 2022, Samuels came within 2,466 votes of defeating Omar, an unprecedented indictment of a party-endorsed incumbent in a safe seat.
Omar has had three terms to serve our district with distinction. She has squandered that opportunity of a lifetime by picking damaging fights with local and national Democratic leaders. She has exacerbated conflict and division, including a never-ending series of anti-Semitic comments that have, on more than one occasion, frightened our Jewish neighbors and forced her Democratic colleagues to rebuke her.
Perhaps most concerning, Omar seems to have used her time in office to enrich herself–a pattern that dates to her days as a state legislator, where she was forced to return thousands of dollars in college speaking fees.
I don’t care what Omar does in her personal life, but each of her three short-lived marriages have drawn scrutiny for public rather than private reasons. Several years ago, she filed a joint tax return with one spouse while being married to another. Omar then left her husband to marry her political consultant, using campaign contributions to bump his pay to $3 million in the 2020 campaign. How is this graft even legal?
In addition, a recent Minnesota Reformer article also described a series of businesses – including a winery and two venture capital firms – that Omar and her now-husband have profited generously from, all starting shortly after their 2020 marriage. Those businesses have been accused in court filings of stiffing investors of millions of dollars, and it appears that one of the business accounts was even frozen by the U.S. Treasury Department agency that enforces sanctions against money launderers, narco-terrorists, and human rights abusers.
On top of that, Omar has received $40,000 in reimbursements for her work in D.C., more than any other Democrat in Congress thanks to a new receiptless reimbursement program, taking in more than the Minnesota delegation combined.
And Omar’s work in Congress is often against our interests. While she touts $54 million in earmarks she’s brought home, she neglects to mention that amount is only 1% of the total she voted against in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill.
A few years ago, after leading the Defund Police movement in Minneapolis and around the country, she voted against additional funds to secure the U.S. capital after the January 6th insurrection.
Sadly, most Democrats voted to sanction Russian oligarchs in the wake of the Ukrainian invasion, but not Omar. Most Democrats also voted to sanction Iranian leaders after their morality police beat a woman to death for taking off her head scarf, but not Omar.
Those votes aren’t consistent with my values, and I don’t believe they’re consistent with my neighbors’ values in the Fifth Congressional District. And since Omar is often the only Democrat to vote this way or among a handful, these aren’t the values of her Democratic colleagues either.
This is what I know: Samuels and his wife have lived in north Minneapolis for almost three decades, when they could have chosen to live elsewhere. Year after year, there are countless stories about their excellent work to improve safety and opportunity for everyone in our community, especially those who need it the most.
Samuels is a lifelong, pragmatic progressive in step with the Democratic Party on every major issue. More importantly, he’s dared to stand up and say, “This is not okay,” regarding issues many others are afraid to discuss. I think that’s the type of leadership we need more of in politics: principled, selfless, and dedicated. What a breath of fresh air that would be in Washington, D.C.
It’s enough to earn my vote. I hope you’ll join me by voting for Don on or before Aug. 13.
