It is generally accepted that 2024 is going to be a much harder year for Democrats than it will be for Republicans, between the Senate seats that are up for re-election and the fact that Joe Biden has no coattails. Enter Dalia al-Aqidi, who is looking to make things very difficult for Ilhan Omar.

Now, we have talked about Ilhan Omar and her vast personal issues and her vile anti-Semitism for a long time now. But what has also been obvious is that Ilhan Omar, despite all those issues, has a stranglehold on her district (which also includes the ballot harvesting that the Somali community has done on her behalf). But can the Fifth Congressional District in Minnesota do better than Ilhan Omar? Undoubtedly, and Dalia al-Aqidi is going to try to unseat Omar.

Al-Aqidi wrote an op-ed that was published in the New York Post, detailing why she is running. Like Omar, she is a Muslim immigrant to America. Unlike Omar, she appreciates the opportunity to live freely here.

I was a young journalist when I immigrated to the U.S. in 1993.

Growing up in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, the idea that I would one day run for office in America never occurred to me.

But I took my oath of U.S. citizenship seriously, which also meant becoming part of America’s rich cultural fabric and giving back to the country I am lucky to call home.

Dalia al-Aqidi moved the Minneapolis in 2019, she writes, where she had a front-row view to what happened during the riots in 2020.

Few proved better at harnessing these grievances than my congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, a Black, female, Muslim, immigrant—the Holy Grail of intersectionality.

As our city burned in the aftermath of George Floyd, she led the charges to defund the police, which she saw as the pathway to justice for those she considered “oppressors.”

I should point out that I have the same intersectional resume as Omar except I am an Arab, while she considers herself “brown.”

But that is not the only key difference between us: Whereas Omar speaks out against core American values, I love America and see identity politics as a toxic effort at tearing our country apart.

When I announced my decision to run as a Republican against Ilhan Omar for Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District, my focus was squarely on kitchen table issues: the economy, crime, and education.

My thinking was clear and necessary: Rather than legislate effectively, Omar has been more like an absentee landlord who fails to represent the needs of her district.

Put simply: We deserve better.

THAT is a mic drop that can be heard all the way from Minnesota to New York. Dalia al-Aqidi points out how Ilhan Omar has failed on the domestic front, but also points out the ugliness of Omar’s behavior after October 7th.

Yet, those who find racism lurking under every stone have made one excuse after another to call for the destruction of Israel.

I attended the solidarity rally for the Jewish people held in our district a few days after the attack by Hamas.

Then I flew to Israel to show our support in person.

Omar not only skipped the solidarity rally but while I toured burned and blood-soaked communities near Gaza, she voted against the U.S. House resolution condemning Hamas for its atrocities.

That’s when I realized the evil genius of Ilhan Omar.

The Palestinian nationalist movement she so loudly champions touts the same type of intersectional orthodoxy Omar has long believed.

In this rewriting of history, Jews are white colonialists and oppressors – Palestinians are blameless victims exiled from a land they relentlessly call their own.

It’s all connected and all must end.

Here is a clip from al-Aqidi’s Twitter/X account about her trip to Israel.
https://twitter.com/Dalia4Congress/status/1719688328298091004
I think it is obvious beyond measure that Dalia al-Aqidi would be a monumental improvement over Ilhan Omar.

The problem, of course, is that Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District – which is Keith Ellison‘s old district – is deep, deep blue. Does Dalia al-Aqidi stand a better chance than Omar’s previous Republican challengers? Yes. But what would have to happen to make defeating Ilhan Omar a reality?

First of all, we would need a strong and organized RNC with a strong leader focused on winning. Ummmm…. maybe we skip that part.

Second, we need a National Republican Congressional Committee actively raising money and boosting the profile of good candidates. Do they want Ilhan Omar out of the House of Representatives? Then it is going to take money and time to promote Dalia al-Aqidi.

Third, the Minnesota Republican Party, who should be the most motivated to get rid of Ilhan Omar, needs to specifically target the Fifth Congressional District and flood it with ad buys and outreach. Do they have a ground game? What do the voters on the ground say?

Fourth, Dalia al-Aqidi, the Minnesota GOP, and the NRCC need to make the DEMOCRATS spend time and money defending Ilhan Omar. That is not an easy task for the Democrats, giving how insufferably bigoted Omar is. They don’t want to spend their efforts on Omar, because she truly is an embarrassment. But if they have to spend time and money doing that, then that is time and money NOT spent on a swing district.

Finally, the NRCC and the Minnesota GOP should throw their weight behind Dalia al-Aqidi because she is EXACTLY the kind of candidate that the Republican Party SHOULD be promoting. We have had enough of candidates with “name recognition” who have the right endorsements who fail at the ballot box. The Republican Party needs candidates who love America, represent our values, and can articulate them clearly. Dalia al-Aqidi checks THOSE boxes, not the intersectional ones that the Democrats demand. The fact that she is an Iraqi immigrant, and a Muslim woman, draws a direct contrast with Ilhan Omar that will make Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District a little more interesting, even if they still go blue in 2024. And even if the results of the election are not what we want in the end, at least the GOP will have supported a candidate that we can be proud of – and made the Democrats defend one that is truly disgusting.

Featured image: Dalia al-Aqidi, from her Twitter/X campaign account profile picture