Rep. Ilhan Omar is facing another GOP challenger in November’s election — and she’s also a Muslim refugee.
Dalia al-Aqidi, a former White House correspondent from Iraq, said she felt compelled to run against the Somali-born lawmaker, calling her a divisive figure who has neglected her Minneapolis district.
“She’s spreading hatred, and she is spreading racism throughout not only her district, not only her state, but throughout the whole country, and this is very important,” al-Aqidi, 51, told The Post on Thursday after announcing her GOP run.
“She’s hurting the moderate Muslims; Muslims like myself. She doesn’t represent me as a Muslim,” she continued.
One strength of her candidacy, al-Aqidi said, is that she couldn’t use her background as a Muslim woman refugee to the US as they share the same basic backstory.
Al-Aqidi and her family fled Iraq to escape Saddam Hussein’s regime when she was in her 20s and became US citizens in the early 1990s. Omar fled war-torn Somalia with her family at age 9.
The challenger established a prestigious career as a political reporter, working for Voice of America and then as a White House correspondent for Middle Eastern television networks where she traveled around the world, covering conflicts in her native Iraq and neighboring Lebanon.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
------------
A YUGE visual difference...
And didnt marry her brother!!!
Dalia al-Aqidi, a former White House correspondent from Iraq, said she felt compelled to run against the Somali-born lawmaker, calling her a divisive figure who has neglected her Minneapolis district.
“She’s spreading hatred, and she is spreading racism throughout not only her district, not only her state, but throughout the whole country, and this is very important,” al-Aqidi, 51, told The Post on Thursday after announcing her GOP run.
“She’s hurting the moderate Muslims; Muslims like myself. She doesn’t represent me as a Muslim,” she continued.
One strength of her candidacy, al-Aqidi said, is that she couldn’t use her background as a Muslim woman refugee to the US as they share the same basic backstory.
Al-Aqidi and her family fled Iraq to escape Saddam Hussein’s regime when she was in her 20s and became US citizens in the early 1990s. Omar fled war-torn Somalia with her family at age 9.
The challenger established a prestigious career as a political reporter, working for Voice of America and then as a White House correspondent for Middle Eastern television networks where she traveled around the world, covering conflicts in her native Iraq and neighboring Lebanon.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
------------
A YUGE visual difference...
And didnt marry her brother!!!
