[While many voiced concerns that her removal from the House
Foreign Affairs Committee would effectively silence her on foreign
policy, Omar said Republicans badly miscalculated, given that she was
assigned to the House Budget Committee as a replacement.]
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ILHAN OMAR EMBARKS ON NEW PATH NO LONGER DEFINED BY ‘FIRSTS’  
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Farnoush Amiri
April 9, 2023
AP News
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_ While many voiced concerns that her removal from the House Foreign
Affairs Committee would effectively silence her on foreign policy,
Omar said Republicans badly miscalculated, given that she was assigned
to the House Budget Committee as a replacement. _

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., joined at left by Sen. Elizabeth Warren,
D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., right, speaks
about the Keeping Renters Safe Act of 2021, (AP Photo J. Scott
Applewhite)

 

 President Joe Biden was winding up for a speech at a Minnesota clean
energy facility when he spotted a lawmaker in the crowd whom he wanted
to recognize.

“I want to thank you for being here,” Biden said, gesturing
toward Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar
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never stop working to level the playing field for everybody.”

For Omar, the quick flash of praise from Biden — who was neither her
first nor second choice to be the party’s 2020 White House nominee
— was more than just a courtesy shout-out during a presidential
visit to her suburban Minneapolis district. It was a recognition of
how far Omar has come after a rocky start to her political career that
at times made her standing with Democrats appear tenuous.

As she settles into her third term, Omar is no longer defined by the
“firsts” that accompanied her arrival in Congress: one of the
first Muslim women in the House, the first refugee from Africa elected
to the House, the first lawmaker to wear a hijab while on the House
floor.

In interviews with nearly a dozen Democrats in the House and Senate,
lawmakers portray Omar as a serious legislator who in the past four
years has earned admiration for giving voice to marginalized groups
often forgotten on Capitol Hill.

The best example of this came in early February when every single
House Democrat voted against a GOP resolution to remove her from the
House Foreign Affairs Committee
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her past comments critical of Israel.
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“I think we’ve been successful in making the Democratic caucus,
Democratic Party, Democratic establishment to get to a place where
they are able to see me fully, for all of the multiple identities I am
a first for and not just to see and celebrate it but to defend it,”
Omar told The Associated Press.

In the debate over her committee seat, many of Omar’s fellow
Democrats, including those of Jewish descent, spoke out in the chamber
about what they said was hypocrisy from the new Republican majority.

“I don’t need any of you to defend me against antisemitism,”
said Rep. Jan Shakowsky, D-Ill. “My friend Ilhan Omar and I have
worked together toward the values that I treasure as an American Jew
and that she treasures as an American Islamic woman, the only one on
the Foreign Affairs Committee.”

Democrats called it payback because they had used their majority in
the last Congress to oust far-right GOP lawmakers from committees
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their incendiary, violent remark
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But the emotionally charged floor debate over Omar was a departure
from the bipartisan outrage she faced in her first year in office. At
that time, Democrats were confronted by the reality that comes with
diverse viewpoints when Omar — showing less deference to the party
line — dragged the divisions over Israel into the open
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It began with social media posts in which Omar criticized pro-Israel
lobbyist groups and questioned the loyalty of Jewish lawmakers who
pushed back against her criticisms of the Israeli government.

Omar apologized for her comments at the time, both privately to her
Jewish colleagues and publicly. She said what she was questioning was
the influence game in Washington and voicing her concern that anything
she said about Israel and its treatment of Palestinians would be
construed as antisemitic.

“There are plenty of people in Congress that can represent the kind
of established view of American foreign policy whether it’s on the
Middle East or whether it’s on military policy,” Rhodes said.
“There’s a desperate need for unconventional thinking and
different perspectives, and that’s what she brings.”

The resolution that Democrats ended up introducing and passing in the
spring of 2019
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condemnation of anti-Muslim bias but did not mention of Omar’s name.
For the next several years, the former state legislator focused on
bringing attention to issues that affected immigrants and families
both back in her district and across Minnesota. And she gained support
from various factions of the party as a result.

“The more time I’ve spent with her the more I’ve come to
appreciate her perspective, the more I’ve come to realize how
important her voice is to represent not just our community in
Minnesota, not just in our country but many around the world,” Rep.
Dean Phillips, D-Minn., another Jewish member of Congress. “It’s
not about agreeing. This building was not built for agreement. It was
built to manage disagreement. And I’d like to think that she and I
can be the perfect example of that."

Omar began to move up the ranks in the Congressional Progressive
Caucus — one of the largest ideological caucuses in the House. She
become the vote counter for the caucus chair, Rep. Pramila Jayapal,
D-Wash., in the last Congress as progressives helped pave the way for
Biden’s agenda to pass the House and Senate.

In January, Omar was chosen by more than 100 members to serve as
deputy caucus chair.

“She’s not gonna stop using her voice,” Jayapal said.
“She’ll continue to use her voice on foreign affairs issues. Just
kicking her off a committee is not going to silence her. She’s way
too strong for that.”

Omar, who was born in Somalia, is now embarking on a new chapter “as
a minority, in the minority,” helping Biden and the Democratic Party
provide a split screen to Republican control by highlighting the
implementation of several legislative achievements made in the past
two years, including the infrastructure law.

“Being taken off the committee is not a pleasant experience. But I
think she’s gonna turn it into a real blessing,” said Rep. Jim
Clyburn, D-S.C., who was an early supporter of Omar and is a member of
the House Democratic leadership team.

Omar is also chairing a newly formed Africa policy working group,
where she and more than a dozen House Democrats will focus on issues
concerning the continent.

“We don’t agree on everything,” said Rep. Sara Jacobs, one of
the group’s members. “But we share a similar worldview, especially
when it comes to the African continent, where we’re both really
focused on U.S. engagement, not leading with our military, but
actually leading with diplomacy and centering our values on human
rights and promoting good governance.”

While many voiced concerns that her removal from the House Foreign
Affairs Committee would effectively silence her on foreign policy,
Omar said Republicans badly miscalculated, given that she was assigned
to the House Budget Committee as a replacement.

“This is why I joke about the fact that Republicans taking me off
the Foreign Affairs Committee essentially meant that they were
promoting me,” Omar said.

“Because we will have the opportunity not only to address
investments in regards to our foreign policy with development,
defense, and diplomacy, but we will also be able to have more of a say
as part as the discussions move forward in regards to our own defense
budget."

* Ilhan Omar
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* Progressive Caucus
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* House of Representatives
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* Democratic Party
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