The war in Gaza forced Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar to condemn both the White House and the Democratic ticket for its handling of the conflict, while rooting for them to win. But in the end, was it worth it?
Now, as the congresswoman and her allies prepare for a second Trump administration, she is lamenting some of her party’s missed opportunities and missteps.
Republicans “are clear about who they are fighting and who they are fighting for,” Omar said in an interview in her Capitol Hill office. “And as Democrats, we are not clear about that."
The Harris-Walz campaign could have listened more to the Democratic base and may have tried too hard to reach Republican-leaning voters by tapping surrogates like former Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican who has vocally opposed Trump, she said.
Omar called that “a huge misstep,” especially in Michigan, the home of the Uncommitted Movement, a group that emerged during the presidential primary to pressure Democrats to end the war in Gaza.
“You have the one name for my generation and generations younger than me that is synonymous with war,” Omar said of Cheney. “It does say something about where your priorities are even if those are not your priorities.”
Our Washington correspondent Sydney Kashiwagi has the full story below.
