Rep. Ilhan Omar re-elected deputy chair of Congressional Progressive Caucus

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar was unanimously re-elected deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Thursday.

She’ll help lead the progressive arm of congressional Democrats at a time when it’s likely to play a key role in serving as a resistance to incoming Republican President Donald Trump.

“With Biden, we had an opportunity to push him to implement good policy,” the Minnesota lawmaker said in an interview Thursday. “With Trump, our opportunities are going to be to push him not to implement bad policy.”

With Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of Congress, Omar acknowledged there may be limitations to the caucus’ power.

But she said she does not think the caucus will be powerless, given that Republicans will hold only a slim majority in the House and at times will need to work with Democrats. It has nearly 100 members, mostly in the House.

Omar said the caucus did not meet with Trump when she served as its whip and he was still in the White House. And though its members have not yet discussed whether they will meet with him this time, she said if the opportunity arises, “Why not?”

“I think we should all be open to doing whatever it takes to make sure that we are able to do the work that causes the least harm and meet and have conversations with anyone that’s willing to meet and have conversations with us,” Omar said of the prospect of meeting with Trump.

Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, will replace Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., as caucus chair, and Rep. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia, D-Ill., will succeed Casar as whip. Both were also elected unanimously on Thursday.

Omar said she chose to remain as deputy chair because of time constraints. She became job in 2022 after she serving as caucus whip from 2019.

“It takes a lot of time, and I wanted to make sure that the person who is in the chairship does have the ability to give the caucus the time that it needs, that I don’t have,” she said.

Heading into 2025, Omar said the caucus’ priorities will remain the same.

It plans to fight any regulatory cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and Trump’s proposed tax cuts, and will push to preserve the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the farm bill, she said.

Omar said she thinks immigration will be the caucus’ next “big fight” and foreign policy also will likely be a key priority whether it involves the Middle East or Ukraine.

“We’re going to have to gear up to defend democratic norms, to defend those that are most vulnerable, and to obviously defend the progressive values that we have,” she said.