Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Omar defeats Samuels for reelection to a third term, CD5.

 Strib, in part,

Frey, along with the mayors of St. Louis Park, Golden Valley, Edina and New Hope endorsed Samuels' intraparty challenge to Omar. Frey's endorsement comes after Omar backed two challengers to Frey's re-election last fall.

Omar had the DFL endorsement, along with the support of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who held the Fifth District seat before Omar, as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, nationally known progressive senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and a number of local mayors and elected officials.

Omar's predecessor in office, Ellison, a progressive, backed Omar. Local conservatives such as Frey backed Samuels.  National progressives backed Omar. For her record, for the progressivism she stands for. Pelosi backed incumbancy, as Pelosi does. It was interesting to see Pelosi put aside her conservative politics, to support a progressive; incumbency being a priority when Dem vs GOP Congressional numbers matter. Keeping the seat with a progressive who has twice already won the District should make sense to Pelosi. 

It is fortunate Minnesota did not lose the one progressive it has in Congress. With McCollum a moderate, and the remainder conservative and very corporation friendly, as are both Senators, having at least one progressive matters.