Local Leader: Representative Ilhan Omar

Article by Becky Fillinger 

Get to know your Congressional Representative! We talked to Rep. Ilhan Omar in April about how she likes to spend her free time, family pets and how she shrugs off the haters.

Rep. Ilhan OmarQ:  Representative Omar, how do you spend your weekends and free time in Minneapolis - do you have time to visit parks, museums and restaurants?

A:  Yes, I do like to visit all those places if I am not doing any sort of Congressional work. For the majority of the time, we have activities scheduled in my district to visit with constituents. My staff allows me to have some personal time to hang out with my teenage kids and my husband in visiting restaurants and parks. This past weekend my son and I went to go see a movie. This was the first time I was in a movie theater in over a year and that was really exciting.

Q:  What movie did you see?

A:  We saw a movie called The Marksman. It is about a man who lived on the Arizona border who helps a young mom and her son escape the Coyote. The mom ends up getting shot and she asks the Marksman to protect her son. The whole movie is about him trying to make sure this kid is safe and it's a pretty cool movie. It was really, really eye opening for my son, and two of his friends, who are the children of my childhood friends. 

Rep. Omar with TeddyQ:  Do you have a pet?

A:  Yes, we have a yellow lab. Teddy is five months old right now and it's pretty exciting and fun to watch him grow.

Q:  What do you wish more people in your district, and Minnesota in general, knew about Somali Americans?

A:  It's an interesting question. I would say that Minnesotans, at this point, know a lot about Somalis.  What I hope that those who report about Somalis would tell people about Somalis is that we are not that much different than everyone else you know. We are people who have an aspiration to have a better life, to see our kids get an education and to have a solid footing in society. We tend to be entrepreneurs and business-focused and we place a high value on education. And we are very family-oriented - we're intergenerational oftentimes in the spaces we live in. I was raised by my grandfather, so my father, my grandfather, and my mom's brothers and siblings and I all grew up in the same household and that's traditionally what you will find. We are a very religious and faithful people, and we are very communal so we love caring for our neighbors, for our community and giving back to one another.

One of the beautiful things I think of, being a Somali in Minnesota, is knowing that you are never going to be in need if there's a Somali person nearby. I have never walked to a place, even as a young person, without a Somali person stopping their car and asking if I needed help. Everybody does that, when we see elders carrying bags from the grocery store, we stop and help. 

Q:  What a great answer! I wish that we call could live in a community with those attributes. I'm going to shift gears a little bit. You have described yourself as an intersectional feminist. Please tell us a little bit more about this idea.

A:  I think it's out of the understanding that many of the barriers we face as women don't stop with just our gender – it intersects with color and class barriers as well. There is a lot more to overcome, than just gender discriminations. Take someone like me – my identities as a Muslim woman, as a black woman, as an immigrant woman, all intersect in my fight for liberation. It’s a fight that's rooted in solidarity, because we tend to understand that liberation for one is liberation for all.

Q:  You're a frequent target, I don't have to tell you this, of conservative news media. How do you build up resilience to shrug it off?

A:  I don't know, I think the easy answer is, I was built this way.

Q:  I’m thinking like Lady Gaga?

A:  I think, overcoming so many challenges in life sort of prepared me, more than many people are prepared to be in this space, but I think for me it's knowing that there is progress being made in the work that I do.  It’s why I am in the position that I’m in and that purpose is to give voice to people who have been marginalized and left out of sitting at tables where decisions are made. I try to fight for the policies that you wanted someone else to fight on your behalf, when I get the opportunity to do so. Everything else I see as a distraction and it really doesn't fit into the work that I need to do. And, I think on more of an emotional level, I know that, as my dad used to say, it's hard to hate - up close - the people who have negative things to say about me. Those people have not had a personal interaction with me, so I know that the hate isn't genuine and it's not rooted in reality. I live in reality and don’t pay attention to those people or their comments.

Q:  How do you prefer to engage with constituents?

A:  We engage with our constituents in all ways, on all levels. My favorite obviously is face to face having a conversation and being in dialogue with the person. I believe in the idea of co-governance - representative democracy should be rooted in that, and so the closer you are to your constituents and the more dialogue you're engaged in and with your constituents you have the ability to have fluency in their day-to-day struggles and concerns. You can be a better representative and a better advocate for them if you understand your constituents. But in the realities of COVID-19, we do a lot of meetings and interactions virtually. I try to use my social media platforms to engage and there are more avenues available to us, than what was traditionally available to politicians before my time.

Q:  Thank you for speaking with us. What are your social media platforms?

A:  Here’s my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – please follow me! Call my Minneapolis office with any concerns too - (612) 333-1272.