As the Minnesota primaries loom, Don Samuels and incumbent Rep. Ilhan Omar return to the forefront of the congressional race for House District 5. 

Samuels and Omar ran against one another in the 2022 congressional election, with Omar beating Samuels by two percentage points. In this upcoming election on Aug. 13, Omar has raised around $1.8 million while Samuels has raised around $535,000, according to the Minnesota Reformer. 

Samuels sat down with the Minnesota Daily to discuss his campaign and address recent news about President Joe Biden and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Omar’s Spokesperson Jackie Rogers said Omar was unavailable for an interview during this time. 

The Minnesota Daily: What is one aspect of your 2024 campaign that you are most proud of? 

Samuels: “It’s the palpable, emotional enthusiasm for the campaign. That is, I believe, very connected to the fact that we lost by 2% and people are feeling responsible for the more that they could have done, the more that they could have given, that they could have participated in the campaign. That shows up in how we’re greeted at events, and we have 40 standby requests for holding meet and greets. People feel like they can connect their neighbors with this. Whereas we had 100 or so volunteers last campaign, we have over 800 this time, which is a phenomenal number.”

Daily: What has been a significant challenge that you have had to overcome during the 2024 congressional campaign?

Samuels: “One of the challenges is the same challenge we had the last time, which is that Congresswoman Omar raised 93% of her dollars or so outside of Minnesota, which I roughly figure is about $260,000. We raised about 75-80% of our dollars inside the state. We significantly out-raised her by maybe a million dollars inside the state to her $360,000. You can see that if this race was simply left to the voters and the residents of CD5 and the state, we would have just simply out-raised her by factors. The challenge for us is to turn this on our side into a national race also, which we kind of hate to do, but we have to get that outside support to compete with that incredible national reputation and profile.”

Daily: You and your primary opponent have very different views on the Israel-Palestine conflict. For voters concerned about that conflict, why should they vote for you?

Samuels: “I’ve always been challenged by people who have the tendency to jump into very complex situations with very simple answers. That becomes especially troubling when the problem is complex, generational, ancient, and many efforts have been made to solve them. Congresswoman Omar is simplifying this thing to concepts like their pro-genocide and anti-genocide students and is unable to understand the complex forces involved in this and the need for discipline and a balanced response that does not alienate any side of the debate. That has been disappointing, but consistent with her ‘either/or’ approach to problems.”

Daily: With President Biden’s health concerns and recent drop out of the election, how would you describe your confidence for Democrats winning this election in November?

Samuels: “The deterioration of President Biden’s support was very painful to watch and especially given his incredible history as the most productive President in recent memory. Now that he’s handed it off to Kamala Harris, and the support for her has surged both financially and affirmationally, it is pleasant to see the great relief as a Democrat to see this happen, and to see a prosecutor take on a felon. The other thing, too, is that she is the perfect anti-Trump. She is a female who is highly sophisticated and skilled and certainly qualified. She is a (child of) immigrants in a debate in a context where immigrants have become the vilified uniter of fearful Americans, manipulated by the President and others. She is a former senator, and so she has that kind of scope of leadership. She is part Indian, part African, and Jamaican. I thought it was pretty poetic that India has had a female prime minister and Jamaica has had a female prime minister. Both countries being former, more recent colonies of the British Empire, which also had its first female prime minister already.  She kind of carries in her DNA the calling of female leadership and to finally blow the ceiling off the constraints for women’s ascendancy.”

Daily: During an interview with Esme Murphy on WCCO, she asked about a podcast interview where you said Ilhan Omar is not “cute enough” and does not “dress well” enough for her role as a congresswoman. What did you mean by that?

Samuels: “Esme said that I said she was not cute or well dressed. I think that was a thing. And just left it there. So there are a few things missing. I did not say Ilhan was (or) was not. I was talking about Ilhan, and then I segued into the concept or premise of poor constituent service and then kind of somewhat strident appeal to that kind of celebrity leadership. Then that’s when I said ‘You’re not’ in that kind of global way. But needless to say, Congresswoman Omar took it as an affront to her identity as a woman. She’s taken an affront to her identity as Muslim in other points in the campaign, an affront to her identity as an immigrant in other parts of her comments about me. She’s basically trying to paint me into a corner where I can say nothing or that I’m so careful that I’ve become ineffective in my rhetoric. I’ve decided I’m not going to play that game. I am going to continue and let the people who know my long years of open biography and know me well make a decision as to what’s really in my heart.”

This interview has been edited for clarity, length and grammar.