Joe McConnell
According to US media projections, Democratic congresswoman and “Squad” member Ilhan Omar has repelled a primary challenge in Minnesota.
Ms. Omar faced three challengers in the primary to determine the party’s nominee and will now run in the November election in the state’s Democratic-dominated 5th District.
The race had been closely watched after the winning primary candidates defeated two members of “The Squad,” a group of progressive Democrats who have been among Congress’s most vocal critics of Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza.
It was one of several primary elections held Tuesday in Connecticut, Wisconsin, Vermont and Minnesota.
With 99 percent of the vote counted as of Tuesday evening, the Associated Press reported that Ms. Omar had won by 67,524 votes, or a margin of just over 56 percent.
In second place was Don Samuels, a former Minneapolis City Council member, who was also narrowly defeated by Ms. Omar in 2022.
On Tuesday, he received just under 49 percent of the vote.
Earlier this month Representative Cori Bush of Missouri lost his primary race and in June Jamaal Bowman in New York was defeated, both after pro-Israel groups invested millions of dollars in those elections by supporting other Democrats.
The couple was elected in 2020, a year marked by protests for racial justice following the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in Minneapolis.
The Super-Pac run by the pro-Israel group American Israel Public Affairs Committee appears to have stayed out of Ms. Omar’s race.
According to data from Open Secrets, an organization that tracks money in politics, he had spent millions of dollars in races against Mr. Bowman and Mrs. Bush.
Super PACs are independent “political action committees” that can raise unlimited amounts of money to support a candidate in an election.
The Intercept newspaper reported on Sunday that a last-minute effort by wealthy pro-Israel donors raised six-figure sums to help Mr Samuels.
Opinion polls suggested that the challenge would be won by Ms. Omar.
According to media reports, an internal poll conducted last month indicated a 30-point lead.
Ms. Omar received help on the campaign trail from progressive Senator Bernie Sanders and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for president.
Ms. Omar, born in Somalia, is one of the first Muslims elected to the United States Congress.
She had been an outspoken critic of Israel even before the war in Gaza.
In February 2023, the Republican-controlled House removed her from the Foreign Affairs Committee because of a series of comments she made about Israel.
At the time, Democrats and Ms. Omar said it was payback after two Republicans were booted from committees in 2020, when Democrats held the House majority.
In 2019, Ms. Omar appeared to suggest that Israel demanded “fealty” from American lawmakers and that any criticism was considered anti-Semitic, implying that there was money behind supporting Israel.
Ms. Omar apologized for those remarks.
In 2022, when the two last faced off, Ms. Omar received 50% of the vote and Mr. Samuels 48%.
Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who has been a member of the upper chamber of the United States Congress since 2007, also won her primary challenge on Tuesday.
