Primary win for ex-Somali refugee marks ‘new era of representation’ in Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS — Ilhan Omar spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp as a young girl, fleeing with her family from civil war in Somalia. Two decades later, after forging a new life in Minnesota, she appears on the brink of becoming the nation’s first SomaliAmerican state legislator.
Omar, a 33-year-old community activist, cried as she delivered victory speeches in English and Somali after defeating a 44-year incumbent in the latest sign of the Somali community’s growing influence in the city and state. Her victory in a heavily Democratic Minneapolis district makes her a strong favorite in the general election — where her Republican opponent is also a Somali immigrant.
“Tonight we made history,” Omar told supporters after her win late Tuesday. “Tonight marks the beginning of the future of our district, a new era of representation.”
A seat in the Legislature would be a new high-water mark for Minnesota Somalis, who in recent years have won seats on the Minneapolis school board and City Council. First drawn in the early 1990s by welcoming social programs, they’re now estimated by the census to number around 40,000, though community advocates say the figure is much higher.
In an interview Wednesday, Omar said her campaign set out to build a broad-based coalition of not only East Africans, but longtime residents and students in a district that encompasses the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus and Augsburg College. She said she hopes her victory sends a message to young women of color who are thinking about running for office that they can raise money, shatter stereotypes and win big.
“I hope our story is an inspirational story to many people,” Omar said. She said her priorities would be “closing the opportunity gap in our educational system, working on criminal justice reform, taking on policing reform,” and making sure that minority women entrepreneurs are given the help they need to succeed.
The city’s Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, popularly known as Little Mogadishu, was glowing over her victory.
Bashir Egal, a local banker, said he was eager to see someone from his community at the Capitol. He said he knows Omar from her work on local events.
“She can take that to mainstream America,” the 27-year-old said. “She’s not someone who is taking the information from a third party — she lived it.”