Omar, Ilhan, 1982-

Ilhan Abdullahi Omar (born October 4, 1982) is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district since 2019. She is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Omar is the first Somali American, the first naturalized citizen of African birth, and the first woman of color to represent Minnesota in the United States Congress. Along with Rashida Tlaib, Omar is one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress.

Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, Omar spent her early years in Baidoa, Somalia before she and her family fled the country’s civil war when she was eight. The Omar family spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States, first in New York, then in Arlington, Virginia, and finally in Minneapolis, where Omar graduated from Edison High School. A graduate of North Dakota State University, she worked as a community educator at the University of Minnesota, was a Policy Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and served as a Senior Policy Aide for the Minneapolis City Council before running for the Minnesota House of Representatives, serving there from 2017 to 2019.

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