Ilhan Omar



Ilhan Omar was born 4th October 1981 in Mogadishu, Somalia. The youngest of 7 siblings, she was raised by her father and her grandmother after her mother passed away. She spent four years in Dadaap refugee camp in Kenya before they traveled to the US in 1992. The family first lived in Arlington, Virginia but later moved to Minneapolis after seeking asylum in 1995. In 2000, Ilhan Omar became a citizen of the US and the following year began attending university at North Dakota State where she graduate with a bachelors degree in political science and international studies. She began her career as a community nutrition educator and child nutrition coordinator but eventually got into politics, working as a campaign manager on state and city election campaigns. In 2016, after working on a number of campaigns, she entered politics, running for state congress for district 60B and won. On 5 June 2018, she filed to run for a seat in the House of Representatives. She won with 78% percent of the votes - the largest percentage of vote of any female candidate in the HOR. She was sworn in on her grandfather’s Quran. During her time as congresswoman, she has advocated for a number of issues on the basis of human rights. She has vocalized support for the abolition of ICE and the protection of sanctuary cities and DREAMers. She has also criticized both the Obama and Trump administration on their drone policies, especially in Yemen. She is adamantly anti war and pro human rights and has criticized both Saudi Arabia and Israel for their numerous human rights violations citing her experience with war and being forced to flee from her home country because of state sponsored violence.