Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN): What to know
U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has made top headlines for some controversial topics. Here is everything you need to know about her journey from being born in Somalia to becoming a U.S. Representative.
Since winning election to Congress in November 2018, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has generated lots of headlines – about her personal life as well as her comments and actions as a lawmaker.
This spring, Omar will share her take on her life and work, in a memoir titled, “This is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman.”
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Omar, 37, announced the book in a Twitter message Tuesday and invited interested readers to order an advance copy.
She describes the memoir as “A multidimensional story of my hopes, aspirations, disappointments, failures, successes, sacrifices, surprises, and unshakable faith in the promise of America.”
Co-written with journalist Rebecca Paley, the book reportedly tells of Omar’s childhood in war-torn Somalia, when she was raised along with six siblings by her father and grandfather after the death of her mother.
The family later lived in a refugee camp in Kenya before emigrating to Arlington, Va., according to publisher Harper Collins. She later attended college, worked as a community organizer, then won a U.S. House seat in her adopted home state of Minnesota.
But there has also been controversy along the way. Omar has become a lightning rod for criticism for comments that some have described as anti-Semitic, and for her support of “BDS,” the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions effort promoting boycotts against Israel.
Omar also sparked outrage last March, when she described the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as “some people did something.”
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The congresswoman has also clashed frequently with President Trump. Last July, for example, she vowed to be “a nightmare to this president” after Trump said Omar and her “Squad” colleagues in Congress should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”
Omar now uses the slogan "Send her back ... to Congress" for her reelection campaign.
Just how extensively Omar’s book will address the controversial situations and criticism against her was not immediately known.
“This is What America Looks Like,” priced at $27.99, will be available in May, according to the Harper Collins website.
Meanwhile, author Benjamin Weingarten has published a separate book about Omar, titled "American Ingrate: Ilhan Omar and the Progressive-Islamist Takeover of the Democratic Party.