Don Samuels preps for primary against incumbent Rep. Ilhan Omar
MINNEAPOLIS -- The Aug. 9 primary is just over three weeks away, and one of the most anticipated matchups is in the 5th Congressional District, where community activist Don Samuels is taking on two-term incumbent Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Omar is no stranger to controversy, and she is no stranger to winning big in elections. In 2020, local attorney Antone Melton-Meaux challenged her in the DFL August primary. He spent $4.6 million and still lost by 20 points.
Through the first quarter of this year Don Samuels has raised almost $400,000 and has been running ads for the past couple of weeks. Samuels is a former Minneapolis City Council member who last year successfully campaigned against the failed charter amendment to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a department of public safety. Omar supported that amendment.
Don Samuels was a guest on WCCO Sunday Morning.
"Crime has now spread to the suburbs. People are afraid. It is the number-one issue on everybody's mind," Samuels said.
But on many other issues Omar's and Samuel's positions are very similar. In his ads Samuels says he will work to make abortion rights the law of the land. Omar is already working on that issue. Last week she voted for a U.S. House Bill that would have made Roe v. Wade federal law. That measure is being given virtually no chance of passing an evenly divided Senate.
WCCO has asked Omar to be a guest on WCCO Sunday Morning before the primary.
You can watch WCCO Sunday Morning every Sunday at 6 a.m., 7 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.