Minnesota elects 1st Somali-American lawmaker in the US

Minnesota elected Ilhan Omar, a 34-year-old Somali-American to the House of Representatives, beating out a Republican opponent, the Guardian reported.

Ilhan, who stood on the ticket of the Democratic Farmer Labour (DFL) – affiliated to the Democratic Party, in Minneapolis District, defeated the nominal Republican opposition.

She’ll represent a highly Somali populated district including Cedar Riverside as the area’s state representative.

– Christopher Stibbs (@StibbsInKC) November 9, 2016Congrats to @IlhanMN for being the the country’s FIRST Somali-American, Muslim woman legislator. For almost 20 minutes, photographers tried desperately to capture Omar as she moved around the room in her white headscarf. “But our work won’t stop”, she said after her victory.

Since arriving in the states, she’s climbed up the political ladder. “My success is not only for me but for every Somali, Muslim and minority, particularly the young girls in the Dadab refugee camp where I lived before coming to the USA”, she said.

Fast forward a decade, the director of policy at Women Organizing Women Network, a group that aims to push women, particularly first and second generation migrants, into civic leadership, won the state House race for Minnesota after previously unseating Phyllis Kahn, the longest-serving House Representative for Minnesota.

“I can not think of a better person to represent this state that I love”.

Long home to the nation’s largest Somali population, Minnesota elected the first Somali-American lawmaker in the USA on Tuesday. Omar declined interviews during the media maelstrom this summer, instead releasing a statement saying there was no immigration fraud, but a more conventional story about trouble in her relationship with Hirsi, which has since resolved itself.

But in the campaign’s final week the real estate magnate had blamed the Somali community for Minnesota’s travails.

Adams’ involvement in Omar’s campaign stretches before the primary, she said. A consistent advocate against economic and racial inequality in the U.S., Omar and her family escaped the Somali civil war when she was just 8 years old, before later relocating to the U.S. when she was 12. Johnson said it showed her support was far from one-dimensional. Tim Scott was elected to a full, 6-year term. She said she is now looking ahead to the free time she will have and said she might “get on my bicycle and ride on all those bicycle trails I’ve gotten funding for Minneapolis”.