Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has won a fifth term representing Minnesota’s 5th District, defeating Republican John Nagel despite an ongoing federal investigation.
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar has won a fifth term in the US House of Representatives for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, the Associated Press projected shortly after midnight on Wednesday.
Omar defeated Republican nominee John Nagel in Tuesday’s midterm elections. The district covers Minneapolis and its inner-ring suburbs and is the most Democratic in Minnesota. The result is unofficial until counties and the state certify it.
What Ilhan Omar said after winning
In a statement released by the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, Omar said it was “the honor of my life to serve you in the People’s House”. She said she would keep “fighting back against this callous administration”.
Omar was first elected in 2018 and became one of the first two Muslim women elected to the House. Born in Somalia, she is the first African refugee to serve in Congress.
Ilhan Omar and the federal investigation
The win came three weeks after Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Omar’s Washington home on 12 October. The Department of Justice said the agents executed a judicially authorised warrant in an ongoing criminal investigation. Reports say agents seized her phone and passport, and prosecutors have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, including to relatives. The investigation is reported to centre on whether false information was given on immigration paperwork.
Omar denies wrongdoing and has not been charged. Her spokesperson called the search “an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies”. Court filings say investigators have not finished executing the warrant, and that any charges would come after that.
President Donald Trump has for years demanded that Omar leave the country, citing unsubstantiated claims about her 2009 marriage that she has repeatedly denied. He said authorities were looking at her “very carefully”. Some legal experts said the timing of the search, weeks before an election, was at odds with Justice Department norms for investigations of elected officials. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said the administration is enforcing the law equally. Former President Barack Obama criticised the investigation.
