Ilhan Omar and Mohamud Noor announce plans to challenge state Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, for the DFL endorsement.

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Ilhan Omar, left, and Mohamud Noor have both announced plans to challenge state Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, for the DFL endorsement. Jennifer Simonson | MPR News 2014

 

State Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, is no stranger to challenges from her own party. Over the past few election cycles, Kahn has faced either a primary and endorsement challenge in the heavily Democratic district.

 

This year is no different. About a month ago, Mohamud Noor announced that he was going to challenge Kahn again for the DFL endorsement. Today, Ilhan Omar announced that she’ll also challenge Kahn for the endorsement.

 

“It’s not a surprise,” Kahn said when asked about her opponents. “The district has a lot of people interested in political activism who think they could do a pretty good job as a state legislator.”

 

Kahn said she’s seeking another term because she thinks Democrats can regain the majority in the Minnesota House and she wants to be there for Gov. Mark Dayton’s final two years in office.

 

Her challengers, however, say it’s time for the longest serving member of the Legislature to be replaced. Both candidates say Kahn is ignoring the needs of the district, particularly people of Somali descent who are a growing segment of the district’s population.

 

“We need someone who has fluency in all of the communities of our diverse district,” Omar said. “This is not about the last 44 years. This is about the future of the district and what the next few years will look like.”

 

Omar is currently serving as the Director of Policy and Initiatives for the Women Organizing Women Network. She also served as a policy aide to Minneapolis City Council member Andrew Johnson.

 

Rep. Phyllis Kahn addressed supporters after her 2014 primary win over challenger Mohamud Noor. Jennifer Simonson| MPR News 2014

 

In the 2014 endorsement contest, Omar backed Noor’s candidacy. She was even injured during the endorsing convention, receiving a concussion when a fight broke out between supporters of Kahn and Noor. The convention was suspended as a result of the incident.

 

DFL delegates deadlocked on a subsequent convention. Both Kahn and Noor headed to the primary where Kahn won by nine percentage points.

 

Omar said she intends to abide by the DFL Party endorsement and will drop out of the race if delegates back another candidate.

 

Noor isn’t making the same pledge. He told MPR News that he’s running again because he wants the Legislature to focus on improving racial disparities in health care and education.

 

“The disparities that I see are not being addressed,” Noor said. “Nobody wants to talk about it and that really depresses me.”

 

Noor, who is the executive director of The Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota, said he took the job to “look really deep” into the issues facing the district.

 

Kahn takes issue with the criticism that she’s not addressing the needs of the Somali community. In the last session, she said she got money for Brian Coyle Center and funding to discourage the radicalization of young Muslims in the community.  She said she didn’t see Omar or Noor at the Legislature advocating for those programs.

 

“I didn’t see any of them last time so it will be interesting to think that they can just walk in and do it,” she said.

 

Kahn said she intends to abide by the party endorsement and will drop out of the race if she doesn’t win party backing. She also emphasized that she has significant support in the Somali community, including the backing of Minneapolis City Council member Abdi Warsame. She said a challenge by both Noor and Omar should help her in the endorsement contest.

 

“The political philosophy is two challengers are always better than one,” she said.

 

Source: http://blogs.mprnews.org

[ElPunto]

Somalis and jaago doon. Every Farax and Xalimo thinks he/she is the one who will succeed. Just like with the umpteen copycat dukaano they open. The only surprise is that it is only two who are challenging the incumbent.

[Che -Guevara]

^We shouldn't undercut the efforts of those who tried to make it. Somalis in Mnpls did well when they sent of theirs to the Mnpls City Council.

 

Noor and Ilhan have been very involved in the local party politics and made name for themselves They are not off the street Jago doon. They deserve the community's support.

 

P.s. Every person who runs for an office is jago-doon. The difference is what Somalis do afterwards.

[Holac]

The two were friends who had a common enemy in Minneapolis, which was Duke. Now they are fighting each other with dirt. Somalis and their nonsense. ElPunto is onto something.

 

I personally believe these two are not qualified for the positions they are seeking.

 

 

[ElPunto]

<cite>

@Che -Guevara

said:</cite>

^We shouldn't undercut the efforts of those who tried to make it. Somalis in Mnpls did well when they sent of theirs to the Mnpls City Council.

 

Noor and Ilhan have been very involved in the local party politics and made name for themselves They are not off the street Jago doon. They deserve the community's support.

 

P.s. Every person who runs for an office is jago-doon. The difference is what Somalis do afterwards.

 

There is nothing to undercut here. Somalis seeking office do that all by themselves. Wasn't the Noor guy and his supporters involved in a brawl over politics that had to be broken up by police? Wasn't the lady running firmly in the Noor corner and now she's running against him? These folks seek office claiming to represent Somalis and seek support and donations from Somalis in Minnesota. There must be a modicum of honourable behaviour and serving group interests first rather than individual interests to be taken seriously. Sadly this is usually not the case either here or in Somalia.