Chicago, IL: Dalia Al-Aqidi, an Arab American journalist who centered her campaign on government fraud and waste in Minnesota, lost her bid on Tuesday to win the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic US Rep. Ilhan Omar in the state’s 5th congressional district.
Instead, Republican John Nagel won the Republican primary with just over 52 percent of the vote — more than double the share won by Al‑Aqidi — and will face Omar in the general election on Nov. 3.
Nagel, a former Minnesota state trooper, focused his campaign on public safety, affordability, government accountability and immigration, while also criticizing Omar for what he described as a failure to address a growing fraud scandal involving Somali-run food and childcare programs that has cost federal taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Al-Aqidi also campaigned on the cost of living, inflation and federal spending, but made government fraud and waste, especially the theft of funds from government-subsidized programs, a cornerstone of her challenge to Omar.
Omar, first elected to represent the 5th Minnesota congressional district in November 2019, is the first Somali American elected to serve in Congress.
She is associated with the rising democratic socialist movement and previously defeated Al-Aqidi in the congressional contest in 2024, receiving 261,066, or 75 percent, of the votes.
Al-Aqidi had hoped to mount another challenge this year.
In the Democratic primary, Omar easily secured renomination with more than 81 percent of the 151,332 votes cast, defeating four challengers, including her closest rival, Julie Trang Le, who received 6.7 percent.
Al-Aqidi highlighted Omar’s failure to confront the fraud, which was dominated by Somali food and childcare operators who were convicted in almost 90 cases filed by the federal government.
With 95 percent of Republican primary votes counted, unofficial results showed Nagel with 7,728 votes and Al-Aqidi with 3,883.
More than 3,210 votes were divided among two other Republican contenders.
In the Democratic contest, with 81 percent of votes counted, Omar led with more than 122,155 votes, compared with 10,163 for Le and about 19,000 among three other challengers.
Minnesota has carried every Democratic presidential candidate since 1976, and Omar is widely expected to defeat the Republican nominee in November.
