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Minnesota Has Ilhan Omar’s Back

Minnesotans say the raid on Omar’s home was all about politics. They also argue that it will backfire and generate boosted turnout for DFL candidates.

Ilhan Omar speaks during day two of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party Convention in the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minnesota, on Saturday, May 30, 2026.

Ilhan Omar, who for years has faced verbal attacks from President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Republican congressional leaders such as House Speaker Mike Johnson, found herself in a more ominous circumstance this week. On Monday, the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party representative’s Washington, DC, home was raided by federal agents affiliated with the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security.

The high-profile, headline-grabbing raid reportedly stemmed from tenuous allegations regarding decades-old immigration paperwork filed by her father when Omar was a child. It was launched barely three weeks before the November 3 midterm elections, in which Omar is seeking a fifth term in the U.S. House—where the Somali-born representative, veteran peace and justice activist and proud progressive has served as one of the most outspoken critics of the president and his associates.

Omar has made a compelling case that the raid, which took place on the same day that Trump attacked her as “a terrible person” and also endorsed the Republican nominee in the race for an open Minnesota U.S. Senate seat, cannot be understood in isolation from the president’s political vendetta against her. In its formal response to the incident, Omar’s office explained: “This raid by Trump’s DHS is an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies. For a decade, Donald Trump has relentlessly targeted Representative Ilhan Omar with inflammatory rhetoric, repeatedly putting a target on her back. Now, those attacks have escalated to a pointless federal raid. The Congresswoman has done nothing wrong. No president should be able to use the power of the federal government to intimidate his political enemies.”

Omar herself was unbowed. After assuring her social-media followers, “I’m ok,” she got to the heart of the matter. “Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.”

She concluded: “I will not be silenced.”

That is a true statement, whether it is measured by rhetorical or political standards.

There are few near-total-certainties in American politics, but one of them is that Omar will be reelected to the US House of Representatives on November 3.

Omar represents a solidly Democratic district that has not sent a Republican to Congress since John F. Kennedy was in........

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