Omar landslides to victory for Congress

MINNEAPOLIS – First-term Congress member Ilhan Omar survived a well-funded primary election challenge, clearing her way to a second term from Minnesota’s heavily Democratic Fifth Congressional District. Omar received 92,000 votes to challenger Antone Melton-Meaux‘s 63,000. Melton-Meaux, an attorney, tried to make an issue of Omar’s national celebrity. He flooded television with advertising and his “Focused on the Fifth” theme that portrayed Omar as out of touch with Minneapolis. Omar responded she was being targeted by powerful interests just because she’s been effective in Congress. Among her detractors has been President Trump, who’s attacked her as a Somali-born Muslim even though she’s a naturalized U.S. citizen. Omar’s Republican challenger in November will be political newcomer Lacy Johnson, a computer technology entrepreneur.