Amid GOP attacks, Rep. Ilhan Omar pushes Democrats to seize the moment

WASHINGTON – Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar doesn't mind defying her own party and remains steadfastly unapologetic about voting against one of President Joe Biden's biggest legislative victories.

Democrats don't have the luxury of being timid, she said, as a roughly $2 trillion climate and social spending measure stalls on Capitol Hill and her party risks losing control of Congress next year.

"Democrats sometimes tend to be afraid of their own shadow and their own power," Omar, a DFLer, said in an interview. "So that's been a little frustrating."

Almost a year into her second term, Omar is a nationally known figure in a party led by a more centrist president. But the outspoken approach she and other members of the progressive "Squad" practice can conflict with the more moderate lawmakers whose swing district elections will help determine how long Democrats keep the House majority.

"There is [an] absolute analogy between the fear of many elected Republicans to anger Donald Trump as there is a fear of many elected Democrats to anger 'the Squad,' " Minnesota Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips said early last month. "These are just truths, because both have armies of activists that are willing to make life really uncomfortable for you."

At times, Omar's votes and words have vaulted her into the spotlight. On other occasions, her presence as one of only two Muslim women and the first Somali-American elected to Congress has been met with Islamophobic rhetoric from the right.

"What she has done with her brilliance and her boldness has shown women across the country, but Muslim women and Black women in particular, is that you cannot let society define you," Indiana Democratic Rep. André Carson, who is also Muslim, said about Omar.

In late November, two videos emerged showing GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert suggesting Omar was a potential terrorist and calling her a member of "the jihad squad." Leading Democrats condemned the comments after the first video went viral, but it remains an open question if the House will vote to take action against Boebert.

Much of the current debate in Washington centers on Democrats' spending push for child care, affordable housing, universal preschool and climate change initiatives. The legislation was such a top priority for Omar and the rest of the Squad that they voted no on the roughly $ 1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package the White House projects will bring billions to Minnesota.

"I made a promise to my constituents that I would not vote for the infrastructure alone, unless the two bills were being passed together and were going to get signed together," Omar said.

While the Squad broke away from the overwhelming majority of congressional Democrats on the vote, 13 House Republicans crossed party lines to send the legislation to Biden, who signed it into law.

"I'm disappointed in my Democratic colleague who voted against this bill as well. I believe that was because of politics, too, and we'll leave it at that," Rep. Angie Craig, a swing district Minnesota Democrat, said during a November news conference after lamenting the state's four House Republicans' opposition to the legislation.

That vote was the kind of defiant statement Omar, a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is apt to make. Sitting in her office last week, Omar said she feels "resolved in making that decision."

"There is no use in having roads and buses and electric cars and all of these things if you are not able to have child care, or have access to things like preschool, or are able to live in a breathable planet," Omar said.

Nearly a year into Biden's presidency, his ambitious spending plan has been significantly scaled back to try to win the moderate votes needed to pass it. The House signed off on the bill two weeks after the infrastructure vote, but its prospects in the Senate are at the mercy of a swing vote.

On an issue that strongly divided Democrats, Omar was a prominent supporter of a November ballot measure seeking to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new public safety agency after the police killing of George Floyd. The question failed to pass, and Mayor Jacob Frey won re-election despite Omar endorsing two challengers trying to oust the incumbent. Omar is dismissive of whether those results show anything about her.

"I get involved in elections because I care," Omar said. "I don't have an entitlement to the results."

So far, Omar hasn't attracted a substantial primary challenge within her safe blue congressional district like the one she overcame in 2020. The House GOP's campaign arm is more focused on trying to use Omar to criticize other Democrats.

"She has a very divisive presence," said Cicely Davis, a Republican attempting a longshot campaign to oust Omar. " I think that this is what the people of this district are actually growing fatigued of."

Omar's work at the Capitol still inspires an array of reactions in her district.

"It's an all or nothing approach," said Golden Valley Mayor Shep Harris, who supported Omar's main primary challenger last year. "And I'm concerned that has cost, or will cost, our communities collectively in D.C."

Omar can be passionate and sometimes provocative, said Kenya McKnight-Ahad, president and CEO of the Black Women's Wealth Alliance in Minneapolis, but she isn't like Boebert or GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, two far-right lawmakers in Congress.

"There's a bunch of jokers in there," McKnight-Ahad said. "(Omar's) not one of them."

In Washington last week, Capitol Police accompanied Omar as she headed to the House floor for her first vote of the day.

Already, Greene had tweeted an anti-Muslim broadside against Omar's bill to create a special envoy to monitor and combat Islamophobia around the world. Threats against Omar have escalated, along with the dangerous vitriol she publicly faces from some House Republicans.

"It speaks for itself," Omar said of the protective presence keeping pace.

Early in her first term, Omar apologized for a tweet perceived as being antisemitic and has drawn criticism on other occasions from some Democratic colleagues. Her words have served as seemingly unending fuel for GOP critics.

Before Omar's bill passed the House that night in a close vote, the incoming leader of the GOP House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Scott Perry, said in a floor speech Omar "has no business sitting on House committees, has no business in this chamber," and falsely claimed she's affiliated with terrorist organizations.

"I really am quite concerned for her safety and hope that she can overcome some of these issues that have been sort of foisted upon her," said Minneapolis City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has signaled the GOP could take away Omar's spot on the House Foreign Affairs Committee if the party wins the chamber in the 2022 midterms.

Omar said the prospect of losing her committee assignments if the House is held by the GOP is "not worth thinking about."

"It's like if you were to ask me, do I think about dying?" she said. "Can't live if you're constantly thinking about dying."

Staff writer Briana Bierschbach contributed to this story.