Friend,

Now that we’ve decisively won our primary election, we’re turning our focus to another crucial primary election coming up next Tuesday: Rep. Ilhan Omar’s re-election.

Ilhan Omar is the last member of the Squad facing a primary challenger this year, and her opponent is racking up huge fundraising numbers from right-wing donors. Ilhan is a bold Black Muslim refugee, and she never backs down in the fight for justice and human dignity. Her political approach and her marginalized identities threaten the status quo, which is why hate-filled conservatives have attacked and threatened her since she first ran for office.

Now, right-wing super PACs and Republican donors are spending millions of dollars to defeat Ilhan and support her primary challenger, a so-called Democrat who worked at a union-busting law firm, where he helped quash workers’ sexual harassment and discrimination claims in defense of employers.

Every night, they’re flooding prime-time TV with attack ads against Ilhan. In the past few months, they’ve outspent Ilhan 6-to-1.

This is about more than just keeping Ilhan in Congress. It’s about showing the world that bold progressive elected leaders are here to stay—and our movement for equity and justice is growing.

Ilhan needs our help to ensure victory this coming Tuesday. Will you donate now to make sure she has the resources to get out the vote and fight back against right-wing attacks?

If you’ve saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your secure donation will go through immediately, split between Rashida and Ilhan:

If you can’t chip in, no worries: There’s another big way you can support her campaign. Can you sign up now to phonebank for Ilhan in the next few days before her primary election?

Right after winning our primary in 2018, our team (and my sons!) went to Minneapolis to help Ilhan get out the vote for her primary, which was a week after ours. We’re not able to do that now because of COVID, so we’re mobilizing virtual support instead.

Here’s a photo of our team with Ilhan back in 2018:

We were thrilled when we both won our primaries, knowing that not only would we be the first two Muslim women in Congress, but that we also shared the same values of lifting up underrepresented communities who’ve been left behind for too long.

Now that we’ve served in Congress together for our first terms, I can say that Ilhan is one of the hardest-working members of Congress I know.

Before even being sworn into Congress, she worked to make it more inclusive, negotiating the Rules Package to ensure that she would be allowed on the floor in a hijab (she’s the first member of Congress to wear one).

In addition to passing 17 amendments and a piece of the CARES Act that protected school lunches during the pandemic, she serves on three committees, including the Foreign Affairs Committee, where she’s in the African sub-committee—as the first African-born person in Congress, and the only member of Congress from a country listed in Trump’s Muslim ban.

She’s taken on leadership roles in multiple caucuses, including Vice Chair of the Medicare for All Caucus and Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (meaning she does a lot of behind-the-scenes work to make sure people vote for our progressive priorities!).

In our first terms, we’ve worked closely with our constituents to translate their concerns and solutions into policy and have made sure to bring their voices into the halls of Congress. As Ilhan told a local newspaper recently: “This isn't my seat. This is the people's seat.”

Let’s make sure for the people’s sake that Ilhan wins, and wins big.

Please donate to support Ilhan in these crucial last few days.

Can’t afford to donate? Sign up to phonebank for Ilhan!

Like me, Ilhan doesn’t take money from any corporate PACs, relying on the grassroots to fund her campaign. Her average campaign contribution is just $18. Her opponents’ average contribution, however, is $650.

Right-wing money is piling into Minnesota to try and defeat Ilhan and our Squad. Together, it’s up to all of us to re-elect Ilhan and fight for a better world. Her victory will be about all of us.

We’ve got to send the whole Squad back to Congress. Please donate now or sign up to phonebank for Ilhan in these crucial last few days.

Thank you,

Rashida