TOTAL MUSLIM VICTORY! Ilhan Wins As Her Ally Takes Senate
Ilhan Omar just secured a fifth term in Congress—and she used her victory speech to unload on Donald Trump. Unofficial Minnesota results show Omar taking more than 76% of the vote in the state’s heavily Democratic 5th District. She celebrated the wider Democratic wave, attacked the “bigot in the White House” and echoed the warning that Trump’s family should “lawyer up.”
The much bigger national shock came in Michigan. Abdul El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers for the state’s open Senate seat and is set to become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. Omar formally endorsed El-Sayed in July, called him the best candidate to beat Republicans and said she looked forward to working with him in Congress.
These were separate races in separate states, and Omar was only one of many people who backed El-Sayed. But taken together, this was a massive victory for the progressive Muslim political coalition: Omar cruises back into the House while her endorsed ally breaks a historic barrier in a battleground state Trump carried just two years earlier.