Issues

At the national level, I will participate in Congressional oversight to ensure that existing anti-trust laws are enforced. These laws prevent large corporations from creating monopolies or duopolies that give them the power to set prices that ordinary people cannot afford. Additionally, I will participate in legislative efforts that invigorate local supply chains, for everything from medicines to steel to energy. COVID showed the risk of becoming dependent on far-flung suppliers who have their own interests in mind.  We must learn the right lessons and not recreate these dependencies.
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Proposing these ideas and getting bipartisan agreement for them takes leaders who can work across the aisle. Ilhan Omar antagonizes everyone and practices the opposite approach.

• As your representative in Congress, I will fight to ensure that our law enforcement officers receive the resources, respect, and recognition they deserve.

• I will push for more state and local law enforcement funding through grants like the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance and COPS so officers can gain access to modern equipment and advanced technology.

• I will advocate for incentives like scholarships and loan forgiveness to attract new recruits and ensure competitive pay and benefits to retain experienced officers.

• I will fight for better pay, benefits, and a safe working environment for our officers.

• I will promote bipartisan cooperation on law enforcement issues and work closely with police leaders to understand their needs.

• I will promote transparency and accountability by supporting measures that uphold the highest standards of integrity within our police forces to foster public trust and confidence.
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When you elect me to Congress, you are choosing a representative who values the dedication and sacrifice of our law enforcement officers as well as someone who understands the needs of our community.
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I invite you to compare me and my positions to Ilhan Omar.  
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In the 2020 aftermath of George Floyd’s death, Ilhan Omar led marches demanding that the Minneapolis mayor dismantle the police, communicating to criminals that the streets were theirs, and communicating to police that elected officials didn’t have their backs. Her rhetoric and actions in 2020 led to the “defund police” ballot initiative in 2021. Fortunately, sensible Minneapolis residents rejected this, but the debate over it has undermined our city’s ability to hire new officers.  
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Ilhan Omar also has groomed, supported, and promoted like-minded politicians, helping them secure school board, municipal, county, and state-level offices. Like her, these followers are more hostile to police than to criminals, believe that homeless encampments should flourish, and believe that all problems can be solved by "taxing the rich."  
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Omar’s acolytes now have a veto-proof majority on the Minneapolis City Council.  They have blocked the reuse of the Third Precinct police station site, and prevented southeast Minneapolis from having a new police station locally. They stridently demand that the city tolerate unsafe and unsanitary homeless encampments in the middle of residential neighborhoods.  
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Along with her benefactor, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Ilhan helped get Mary Moriaty elected as Hennepin County Attorney.  This role leads the largest prosecutorial office in the state.  Moriarty was woefully unqualified: She never had been a prosecutor and had been fired from her leadership of the public defender office because she created a hostile climate and could not collaborate.  
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Yet with Omar’s help, Moriarty now occupies this role so critical to local public safety.  She uses her position to cite fake psychology to avoid charging repeat youth offenders, even as their own families beg that their children should experience consequences. She has caused untold distress among families of crime victims, as she lets their perpetrators go free. Moriarty also wasted public dollars in an effort to hire outside counsel to prosecute the police. The people who live, work and visit suffer the consequences.
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Relieving our district of Ilhan’s leadership and influence is imperative if we are to break away from this downward spiral. I will help elect responsible members to the Minneapolis City Council in 2025 and in 2026, and I will support a qualified competitor to Moriarty. I will also support the mayors and police chiefs in our district who are coping with the consequences of conditions created by Ilhan Omar.

I do not support the Far-Left dreams of “Medicare For All,” as it is a shallow bait-and-switch bumper sticker, not a real policy. It really should be called “Medicare for None” because it would eliminate Medicare, and private insurance, and basically all existing systems,in favor of a massive new government program, started from scratch, paid for by enormous tax increases. 

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If the U.S. were a new country, and medical services a new industry, one could entertain designing a healthcare program that gives every citizen access to all services, paid for by taxpayers. But the U.S. is not anew country, and we do have a health care system, as fragmented as it is. Our current system now accounts for nearly 20% of the entire U.S. economy.  

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“Medicare for None” would dismantle what we now have in favor of a new system based on fantasy, not reality. Such a massive upheaval is most likely to hurt the most vulnerable people: The poor, the sick, those who already have difficulty navigating complex bureaucracies.  It is neither responsible nor pragmatic.Let’s face reality and improve on what we have.

I believe we must get back on track, to a time when public education gave our children the basic skills they need to thrive, while creating common unity out of America’s beautiful diversity. But today, many public schools in our district fail to enforce discipline, allow the basics to fall by the wayside in favor of training students to become “social justice warriors,” using rhetoric that encourages our children to split apart rather than unite.
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We need immediate and long-term solutions, at local and national levels.
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Locally, and immediately, we must create more school choices for children and families. We must stop forcing children to attend schools that do not meet their needs. If the public school down the street is failing them, then public dollars should be used to give these children access to better educational opportunities. 
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Minnesota now offers families open enrollment; we also should give families who take this option resources to transport their children.
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Minnesota also offers charter schools, but not all charter schools are good. Those that under-perform should be closed.
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Minnesota does NOT offer vouchers, which would allow families to spend the money that the state allocates to educate their child in whatever school the family believes will meet their child’s needs. I believe we should reconsider this option.
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Long-term solutions involve revisiting institutes of higher education, where tomorrow’s teachers are trained.  We must train new teachers in basic pedagogy to help their young charges thrive. Failed and unproven pedagogies must be discarded in favor of those that have upheld their utility over time.
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In order to create an informed citizenry, capable of independent critical thought, and infused with a common democratic spirit, we must discard the methods in our education system that achieve the opposite result.
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Unfortunately, teacher unions act as a special interest group, and oppose these immediate and long-term solutions. We must have the courage to challenge them to explain how their obstructionism helps the kids, which is the only special interest group that matters to me.

Having grown up in Iraq, steeped in a world that demonizes Jews at every opportunity, I recognize this all too well, but I never expected to see it erupt and flourish in America. Now it is here. It cannot stand. It will take clear-eyed observers like me to tell the truth, to push back against the flood of hate-filled misinformation dumped into the social media and “journalistic” ecosystem by Islamists in the Middle East, and amplified by Russia and China. These countries, our adversaries, know exactly what they are doing: Using age-old attacks against Jews to fragment our society, turning us against each other and thus weakening us so we are unable to defend ourselves when they come for us next.  
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And they will come: History has shown that what starts with Jews never ends with Jews.
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To the Jewish community in our district and Minnesota, hear me: I stand with you. I will fight for you. I understand what you are experiencing and will do everything in my power to protect you.
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And to Ilhan Omar, hear me: I know exactly what you are doing. You are trying to create the conditions that will activate that age-old Jew-hating virus, which is what all demagogues do, in their attempts to divide their societies and gain power and resources for themselves in the chaos that ensues. I too am a Muslim, but unlike you, I see this disgraceful bigotry, and I reject it and repel it with every tool at my disposal. That includes challenging you.

Illegal immigration is an affront to the rule of law. It is a slap in the face to those of us who follow the rules. Unmanaged and uncontrolled immigration places immense burdens on cities where immigrants arrive, with no means of support. Mayors of such cities, citing costs in shelter, food, health care and more, have pleaded with the administration to manage the border better than it has.  
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Ilhan Omar complains that any management of immigration is cruel and inhumane. Such thinking is foolish and ignorant at best. It is cynical and dangerous at worst.
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• I believe in controlled, legal immigration, and I would vote in favor of such policies.
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• I would oppose massive amnesty proposals.
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• I would consider proposals that create pathways to citizenship for thoroughly vetted, contributing immigrants already here if they don’t disadvantage those who pursue legal means of immigration.
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Ilhan Omar’s opposite approach would recreate the lawless society that her family helped create and from which she fled. I fled a complicated and oppressive society in Iraq myself. But I’m intelligent enough not to wish for its recreation here.

As a Member of Congress, I would vote to reverse the blockade of the Keystone XL pipeline permit, while ensuring that environmental protections are in place. Similarly, I would advocate for allowing drilling on federal lands, while simultaneously supporting the development of environmental protections. Finally, I would work to reverse the policy that now allows Russia to complete its Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany, once Putin extricates himself from Ukraine.

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We can maintain gas prices for ordinary Americans by controlling our own supply, now and in the future. I believe it was a mistake to dump millions of barrels of crude oil onto the market from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That is our nation’s emergency stockpile, meant to manage disruptions to the world oil market resulting from shocks to the system, such as war. It should never be used for partisan political purposes. Our oil reserves are now at their lowest levels since 1984. We must rebuild them, and consider legislation that would prevent depleting them again, for reasons other than genuine emergencies.

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I appreciate concerns over environmental costs associated with developing energy supplies, and I appreciate the concern over climate change as a consequence of over-reliance on carbon fuels. I also appreciate the fears of environmental degradation that unfettered energy exploitation can create.  However, I believe that we have developed, and still can develop, energy practices that protect the environment.  

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We must consciously develop a mix of local energy supplies. We must continue to use, while reducing our dependence on, fossil fuels, as we develop safe nuclear energy, along with transitioning to cost-effective renewables that have demonstrated an ability to scale.  I do not believe it is wise or helpful to cut off fossil fuels as quickly as possible, as if this will force us to transition away from them before alternatives are available.

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Not everyone may like my proposals, but at least they are serious. Ilhan Omar is unserious.  In 2021, she enlisted her Squad-mates to join political theater, citing environmental concerns to oppose replacing the aging Line 3 pipeline in northern Minnesota. The existing line, constructed some 60 years ago, was corroding, and only could operate at half its original capacity. Replacing the corroding line would improve environmental safety, while boosting our home energy supply and creating good jobs for the residents in the northern part of our state. Ilhan Omar’s dangerous stunt did nothing to ensure energy security or protect the environment. Instead, it flirted with an environmental disaster, and communicated to workers in Northern Minnesota that she does not care about them.  Unlike Ilhan, I will lead and accept the responsibilities that come.  

The world is growing more dangerous as first tier threats from China and Russia, and second tier threats posed by Iran, North Korea, and others pose significant challenges to the world order we created and benefit from. We are barely prepared for the real threats we face today, let alone the threats we can safely assume lay over the horizon. We must continue to embrace our global position and strengthen our alliances with those with whom we share common values and interests.
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We have many tools of statecraft at our disposal, not just our military. We must stop using the wrong tools, for mistaken purposes, against the wrong nations. It sows confusion among our allies and emboldens our enemies, making armed conflict more likely.

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In foreign policy and national security, my positions are diametrically opposed to those of Ilhan Omar. Her rhetoric and votes suggest that she supports Putin’s greedy oligarchs, the oppressive regime in Iran, the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood, and the human traffickers and terrorists coddled by Qatar.

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Astoundingly, without awareness much less sanctions by the State Department, Ilhan Omar has pursued a foreign policy directly opposed to America’s interests:

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• She held private meetings with leaders from Turkey and Pakistan.

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• On Qatar’s dime, she enjoyed the World Cup in luxurious accommodations built by slaves.  

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• She voted AGAINST the MAHSA Act, which would have held the Iranian regime accountable for suppressing women’s rights.  

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• She supported our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, but remains silent as the Taliban imposes draconian restrictions upon women.  

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• She doesn’t denounce the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Sudan, but rather starts an “African Workgroup” that gives her husband consulting opportunities.

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• Her position vis-à-vis Israel is indefensible: She wants to weaken Israel so that this one democracy in the Middle East, our most precious ally, is unable to defend itself against a war that Iran and its terrorist proxies launched against it on seven fronts.

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Ilhan Omar and I may share the identifiers as Muslim, women-of-color, refugees from the Middle East, but we could not be more different in our values and the positions we hold. While I wish to preserve the freedoms of the U.S., Ilhan Omar behaves as if she wishes to recreate the hellscape conditions we both left behind.  She is naïve, and/or corrupt, and/or actively wishes to harm America and its people.  

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My life experiences inform my views. I worked for decades as an international journalist, covering conflicts around the world, sharing information with audiences that span cultural divides. My views are shaped by reality, which has prompted me to become a freedom activist, proactively fighting oppression and terrorism. This is precisely why I am challenging Ilhan Omar on these issues.