Team —

Yesterday, one of Trump's hand-picked candidates for Congress in Georgia posted a photo on Facebook. It’s a photo of her holding a gun — an assault rifle — next to pictures of me and my sisters AOC and Rashida Tlaib. In her post, she tells her supporters to “go on the offense” against us.

This was no typical campaign advertisement. It was an incitement to violence. By the time I saw it, there were already death threats in the responses.

Listen, I’m no stranger to threats.

I’ve been threatened over who I am and what I’m fighting for since I first ran for office.

Leaders of the Republican Party have incited attacks against me and against the Squad ever since we were sworn in. In fact, the same Republican who posted this photo has called Rashida and me “illegitimate” members of Congress for taking our oath of office on the Quran.

The president of the United States routinely riles up his campaign crowds by screeching that I should “go back” to where I’m from.

They do this not simply out of hatred, or of racism, or of Islamophobia, but because they are afraid — afraid of the vision of America, guided by fairness and equality, that we have been fighting for. And they believe that by threatening our safety, they can force us to abandon the pursuit of that American dream.

I want you to know — and I want Donald Trump and the leaders of his party to know — that I will not back down. I will not stop fighting for a healthcare system, an economic system, a housing system, and a justice system that truly works for every person in our country.

Together, I know that we will achieve the America we know we all deserve, no matter what we are up against, for one simple reason: Our movement is more powerful than their fear.

In solidarity,

Ilhan Omar