The Aug. 11 primaries settled it: Ilhan Omar will defend her U.S. House District 5 seat in November against Republican John Nagel and independent DeVelle L. Jackson. Omar won the DFL primary with 122,640 votes, or 80.71%. Julie Trang Le was a distant second with 10,201 votes (6.71%). Latonya T. Reeves got 9,131 (6.01%), Nate Schluter 8,016 (5.28%) and Abena A. McKenzie 1,961 (1.29%).
The GOP race was the bigger surprise. Nagel, a 30-year Minnesota State Patrol veteran from St. Louis Park, won with 7,777 votes (52.16%). Dalia Al-Aqidi finished second with 3,902 (26.17%). Angie Windhauser drew 2,315 (15.53%) and Abbey Zieska 915 (6.14%). The turnout gap tells you plenty about the district: Omar alone got about 8 times as many votes as the whole Republican field.
After the results came in, Omar cast November as a fight against President Trump's administration. "I am grateful that the Fifth District has my back, and I will always have yours," she said. Nagel ran on his law enforcement background. "Washington has lost touch with common sense, and it's time to send someone who hasn't," he said. Jackson skipped the primary because he had no opponent on his line. He's a former union tradesman whose platform calls for digital privacy protections, congressional term limits and a wealth tax on billionaires to fund social services.
District 5 covers Minneapolis and many of Bloomington's neighbors, including St. Louis Park, Richfield, Golden Valley, Crystal, Robbinsdale, New Hope, Fridley, Brooklyn Center and part of Edina. Before the primary, 9 candidates were on the ballot.
This was Omar's easiest primary in years. In 2022 she beat former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels by just 2 percentage points. Expect a similar result in November: District 5 is the most Democratic district in the nation.
