I agree with JTA’s privacy policy.
By submitting the above, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use of JTA. org
(JTA) – One of Israel’s staunchest critics in Congress narrowly survived a complicated Democratic primary, as Rep. Ilhan Omar won Tuesday in Minnesota’s fifth congressional district.
Omar, a two-term congressman who supports boycotting Israel’s motion and once lumped Israel and the United States together with Hamas and the Taliban in a debate over human rights abuses, was challenged by Don Samuels, a former Minneapolis city councilman who courted pro-Israel. and suburban support. He won 48. 2 percent of the vote in the district, which includes the city of Minneapolis and some of its suburbs, compared with Omar’s 50. 3 percent.
Omar’s margin of victory (less than 2500 votes) was much smaller than in 2020, when he won with 35,000 votes even though nearly $2. 5 million was spent on his opposition through a pro-Israel PAC. This time, little was spent on the race, raising questions about whether the new AIPAC-led political action committee, the pro-Israel lobby, may have influenced the bottom line as it has claimed in other primaries across the country where it spent up to $6 million.
Regarding Israel, Omar and Samuels have said they seek a two-state solution. But Omar, who is part of the progressive “Squad,” has become the face of the Democratic Party’s divisions over Israel because of his constant and fierce denunciation of the country.
Minnesota’s career focused on local issues, especially public protection. Samuels opposed a 2021 ballot initiative, introduced in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, a Minneapolis resident, through police, which allegedly reorganized the city’s police branch into a “public protection branch. “”Omar had subsidized the measure, which ultimately failed in what was perceived as a major setback for the Defund the Police movement.
Although Samuels faced a incumbent with strong grassroots help and more than double the fundraising benefit, he won belated approval from Minneapolis Jewish Mayor Jacob Frey, who had also mingled with Omar in his own re-election campaign. Samuels also received backing from the mayors of several Minneapolis suburbs, adding St. Louis Park, which has a giant Jewish community.
Samuels surpassed Omar in outdoor spending, but none of them provided the kind of investment that had made the 2020 district contest a nationwide outlier, and the Jewish community’s most-watched contest. Then a pro-Israel PAC called Americans for Tomorrow’s Future spent nearly $2. 5 million on Omar’s challenger, Antone Melton-Meaux, but ended up far behind.
This time, AIPAC’s creation of the United Democracy Project, with the largest war chest of the moment among super PACs, meant that spending in favor of Israel is somewhat higher than in past primaries. However, AIPAC’s Super PAC ignored the Omar-Samuels party.
An AIPAC spokesperson declined to comment on why the organization skipped the Omar-Samuels game or the nearby effects caused it to reconsider its participation in other primaries this summer.
But a spokesman for the United Democracy Project told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in the past that the organization was more focused on preventing Israel’s critics from taking over the workplace than on removing headlines. In a notable outlier, the organization spent more than $4 million in Michigan opposed Democratic Rep. Andy Levin, who lost last week; however, he was one of two incumbents vying for a redesigned seat.
I accept JTA’s Privacy Policy.
By submitting the above, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use of JTA. org