Age, Biography, and Wiki
Ilhan Omar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1982. She migrated to the United States in 1995 as a refugee and settled in Minnesota. Omar's journey from being a refugee to becoming a U.S. Congresswoman is a testament to her resilience and determination. She is currently serving as the U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district.
| Occupation | Politician |
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| Date of Birth | 4 October 1982 |
| Age | 42 Years |
| Birth Place | Mogadishu, Somalia |
| Horoscope | Libra |
| Country | Somalia |
Height, Weight & Measurements
While specific details about Ilhan Omar's height and weight are not widely available, she is known for her charismatic presence and impactful public appearances.
In February 2019, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened to "take action" against Omar and Rashida Tlaib for their support of the BDS movement. When journalist Glenn Greenwald responded that it was remarkable "how much time U.S. political leaders spend defending a foreign nation even if it means attacking free speech rights of Americans", and tagged Omar for a comment, she replied with a quote from a hip hop song, "It's All About the Benjamins", alluding to a slang term for U.S. $100 bills. Both Democratic and Republican politicians accused her of using an antisemitic trope regarding Jews and money, although some Democratic politicians defended Omar's comment. Omar later said that she was referring to the influence of pro-Israel lobbyists in the United States, especially AIPAC.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Ilhan Omar is married to Tim Mynett, a political consultant. Her personal life, including her marriage, has been subject to public scrutiny, but she has consistently maintained a strong focus on her political career.
She was the youngest of seven siblings. Her father is Nur Omar Mohamed, an ethnic Somali from the Osman Mohamud sub-clan of Majeerteen, a clan in Northeastern Somalia. He was a colonel in the Somali army under Siad Barre, served with distinction in the 1977-78 Ogaden War between Somalia and Ethiopia, and also worked as a teacher trainer. Her mother, Fadhuma Abukar Haji Hussein, a Benadiri, died when Ilhan was two. She was raised by her father and grandfather, who were moderate Sunni Muslims opposed to the rigid Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. Her grandfather Abukar was the director of Somalia's National Marine Transport, and some of Omar's uncles and aunts also worked as civil servants and educators. She and her family fled Somalia to escape the Somali Civil War and spent four years in a Dadaab refugee camp in Garissa County, Kenya, near the Somali border.
Omar's family secured asylum in the U.S. and arrived in New York in 1995, then lived for a time in Arlington, Virginia, before moving to and settling in Minneapolis, where her father worked first as a taxi driver and later for the post office. Her father and grandfather emphasized the importance of democracy during her upbringing, and at age 14 she accompanied her grandfather to caucus meetings, serving as his interpreter. She has spoken about school bullying she endured during her time in Virginia, stimulated by her distinctive Somali appearance and wearing of the hijab. She recalls gum being pressed into her hijab, being pushed down stairs, and physical taunts while she was changing for gym class. Omar remembers her father's reaction to these incidents: "They are doing something to you because they feel threatened in some way by your existence." Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000 when she was 17 years old.
Speaking after the 2021 United States Capitol attack, Omar said the experience was very traumatizing and that the trauma would last a long time. She said she began to fear for her life when the evacuation began and as she was being escorted to a secure area she made a phone call to the father of her children to "make sure he would continue to tell my children that I loved them if I didn't make it out." She said, "The face of the Capitol will forever be changed. They didn't succeed in stopping the functions of democracy, but I do believe they succeeded in ending the openness of our democracy."
| Parents | |
| Husband | Ahmed Nur Said Elmi (m. 2009-2017) Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi (m. 2018-2019) Tim Mynett (m. 2020) |
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Net Worth and Salary
As of April 2025, Ilhan Omar's net worth is estimated to be around $114,500 by Quiver Quantitative. Her annual salary as a U.S. Congresswoman is $174,000. Despite her modest net worth compared to other politicians, Omar has been successful in raising significant funds for her campaigns, with recent disclosures showing $764,000 in new fundraising.
Omar serves as deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and has advocated for a $15 minimum wage, universal healthcare, student loan debt forgiveness, the protection of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A frequent critic of Israel, Omar supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and has denounced Israel's settlement policies and military campaigns in the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as the influence of pro-Israel lobbies in American politics. Her remarks regarding Israel and the influence of pro-Israel lobbies have led to accusations of antisemitism. In February 2023, the Republican-controlled House voted to remove Omar from her seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, citing past comments she had made about Israel and concerns over her objectivity.
In 2018, Republican state representative Steve Drazkowski publicly accused Omar of campaign finance violations, claiming that she used campaign funds to pay a divorce lawyer, and that her acceptance of speaking fees from public colleges violated Minnesota House rules. Omar responded that the attorney's fees were not personal but campaign-related; she offered to return the speaking fees. Drazkowski later accused Omar of improperly using campaign funds for personal travel to Estonia and locations in the U.S. Omar's campaign dismissed the accusations as politically motivated and accused Drazkowski of using public funds to harass a Muslim candidate. In response to an editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune arguing that Omar should be more transparent about her use of campaign funds, she said: "these people are part of systems that have historically been disturbingly motivated to silence, discredit and dehumanize influencers who threaten the establishment."
In June 2019, Minnesota campaign finance officials ruled that Omar had to pay back $3,500 that she had spent on out-of-state travel and tax filing in violation of state law, plus a $500 fine. The Campaign Finance Board's investigation also found that in 2014 and 2015 Omar had jointly filed taxes with a man she was not legally married to. Unlike some states, Minnesota does not recognize common law marriage, and so such a joint filing is not legally permitted. But experts have said that if the taxpayer files a correction within three years, as Omar's attorney and accountants did in 2016, then there are normally no further consequences, and the Internal Revenue Service is unlikely to pursue punitive measures unless there is a large discrepancy or fraudulent intent. In response to the AP's request for comment, her campaign sent a statement saying, "all of Rep. Omar's tax filings are fully compliant with all applicable tax law."
Omar supports broader access to student loan forgiveness programs, as well as free tuition for college students whose family income is below $125,000. Omar supports Bernie Sanders's plan to eliminate all $1.6 trillion in outstanding student debt, funded by an 0.5% tax on stock transactions and a 0.1% tax on bond transactions; she introduced a companion bill in the House of Representatives. In June 2019, Omar and Senator Tina Smith introduced the No Shame at School Act, which would end the marking of—and punishment for—students with school meal debt.
Omar has been critical of U.S. foreign policy, and has called for reduced funding for "perpetual war and military aggression", saying, "knowing my tax dollars pay for bombs killing children in Yemen makes my heart break," with "everyone in Washington saying we don't have enough money in the budget for universal health care, we don't have enough money in the budget to guarantee college education for everyone." Omar has criticized the U.S. government's drone assassination program, citing the Obama administration's policy of "droning of countries around the world". She has said, "we don't need nearly 800 military bases outside the United States to keep our country safe."
Career, Business, and Investments
Ilhan Omar's political career began when she was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2016. She made history by becoming the first Somali-American elected to Congress in 2018. Her legislative focus includes proposing bills like the Global Criminal Justice Act and the Combating International Islamophobia Act. Omar does not have significant investments in publicly traded assets that are publicly disclosed.
Omar began her professional career as a community nutrition educator at the University of Minnesota, working in that capacity from 2006 to 2009 in the Greater Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. In 2012, she served as campaign manager for Kari Dziedzic's reelection campaign for the Minnesota State Senate. Between 2012 and 2013, she was a child nutrition outreach coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Education.
Omar won the Democratic nomination in the August 11 Democratic primary, in which she faced four opponents. The strongest was mediation lawyer Antone Melton-Meaux, who raised $3.2 million in April–June 2020, compared to about $500,000 by Omar; much of Melton-Meaux's funding came from pro-Israel groups. Melton-Meaux was also endorsed by Minnesota's largest newspaper, The Star Tribune. This led some analysts to predict a close race, but Omar received 57.4% of the vote to Melton-Meaux's 39.2%. She defeated Republican Lacy Johnson and Legal Marijuana Now Party candidate Michael Moore in the November 3 general election, with 64.3% of the vote to Johnson's 25.8% and Moore's 9.5%. Omar's margin of victory was 24 points less than Biden's in the district, the highest underperformance of any Democrat in the nation, which Nathaniel Rakich of FiveThirtyEight attributed to increased Republican spending and Moore's progressive pro-marijuana campaign.
Brian Stelter of CNN Business found that from January to July 2019 Omar had around twice as many mentions on Fox News as on CNN and MSNBC, and about six times the coverage of James Clyburn, a Democratic leader in the House of Representatives. A CBS News and YouGov poll of almost 2,100 American adults conducted from July 17 to 19 found that Republican respondents were more aware of Omar than Democratic respondents. Omar has very unfavorable ratings among Republican respondents and favorable ratings among Democratic respondents. The same is true of the other three members of the Squad.
In June 2019, Omar was one of four Democratic representatives to vote against the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Humanitarian Assistance and Security at the Southern Border Act, a $4.5 billion border funding bill that required Customs and Border Protection to enact health standards for individuals in custody such as standards for "medical emergencies; nutrition, hygiene, and facilities; and personnel training." "Throwing more money at the very organizations committing human rights abuses—and the very Administration directing these human rights abuses—is not a solution. This is a humanitarian crisis ... inflicted by our own leadership," she said.
On November 5, 2021, Omar was one of six House Democrats to break with their party and vote against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act because it was decoupled from the social safety net provisions in the Build Back Better Act.
While she was in the Minnesota legislature, Omar was critical of the Israeli government and opposed a law prohibiting the state from working with companies that support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. She compared the movement to people who "engage[d] in boycotts" of apartheid in South Africa. During her House campaign, she said she did not support the BDS movement, describing it as counterproductive to peace. After the election her position changed, as her campaign office told Muslim Girl that she supports the BDS movement despite "reservations on the effectiveness of the movement in accomplishing a lasting solution." Omar has voiced support for a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. She criticized Israel's settlement building in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank.
A number of Democratic leadersincluding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Majority Whip Jim Clyburncondemned the tweet, which was interpreted as implying that money was fueling American politicians' support of Israel. The Democratic House leadership released a statement accusing Omar of "engaging in deeply offensive anti-Semitic tropes". The Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) also denounced her statements. Omar issued an apology the next day, saying, "I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes", and adding, "I reaffirm the problematic role of lobbyists in our politics, whether it be AIPAC, the NRA or the fossil fuel industry." The Anti-Defamation League accused her of promoting an "ugly conspiracy theory" about Jewish influence in politics. Journalist Peter Beinart, after tweeting that the controversy was about "policing the American debate over Israel", thought Omar's statement inaccurate, wrong and irresponsible, but argued that her congressional critics were more "bigoted" on Israeli-Palestinian issues than Omar.
On February 27, 2019, Omar said of her critics: "I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country." The statements were quickly criticized as allegedly drawing on antisemitic tropes. House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Eliot Engel said it was "deeply offensive to call into question the loyalty of fellow American citizens" and asked Omar to retract her statement. House Appropriations Committee chairwoman Nita Lowey also called for an apology and criticized the statements in a March 3 tweet, which led to an online exchange between the two. In response, Omar reaffirmed her position, insisting that she "should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee." Omar said she was simply criticizing Israel, drawing a distinction between criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu and being anti-Semitic. Omar's spokesman, Jeremy Slevin, said Omar was speaking out about "the undue influence of lobbying groups for foreign interests."
Reaction among 2020 Democratic presidential candidates was mixed. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Bernie Sanders defended Omar. While Senator Cory Booker found her comments "disturbing", he recognized that some of the attacks against her had "anti-Islamic sentiment". Kirsten Gillibrand said, "those with critical views of Israel should be able to express their views without employing anti-Semitic tropes about money or influence", but also criticized the Republican Party for censuring Omar while saying "little or nothing" when President Trump "defended white supremacists at Charlottesville." New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called Omar's remarks "unacceptable". According to The Guardian, election records archived by OpenSecrets "suggest a correlation between pro-Israel lobby campaign contributions and Democratic presidential candidates' position on the controversy." Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus believed Omar was unfairly targeted because she is a black Muslim, saying that "the Democratic leadership did not draft a resolution condemning Donald Trump or other white male Republicans over their antisemitic remarks." The second round of remarks prompted the Democratic leadership to introduce a resolution condemning antisemitism that did not specifically refer to Omar. After objections by a number of congressional progressive Democrats, the resolution was amended to include Islamophobia, racism, and homophobia. On March 7, the House passed the amended resolution. Omar called the resolution "historic on many fronts" and said, "We are tremendously proud to be part of a body that has put forth a condemnation of all forms of bigotry including anti-Semitism, racism, and white supremacy." Some Minnesota Jewish and Muslim community leaders later expressed continuing concern about Omar's statements and indicated that the issue remained divisive in Omar's district.
In March 2020, Omar married Tim Mynett, a political consultant whose political consulting firm, the E Street Group, received $2.78 million in contracts from Omar's campaign during the 2020 cycle. The campaign's contract with Mynett's firm became a focus of criticism by her Democratic primary opponent and conservative critics that received significant local and national media attention. On November 17, 2020, Omar's campaign terminated its contract with Mynett's firm, saying the termination was to "make sure that anybody who is supporting our campaign with their time or financial support feels there is no perceived issue with that support."
Social Network
Ilhan Omar is active on various social media platforms, where she engages with her constituents and discusses her political views. Her presence on platforms like Instagram and Twitter allows her to connect directly with the public.
In 2022, Omar's first sponsored piece of legislation, a bill to designate the central Minneapolis post office the Martin Olav Sabo Post Office, became law.
Omar has criticized Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses and the Saudi-led intervention in the Yemeni civil war. In October 2018, she tweeted: "The Saudi government might have been strategic at covering up the daily atrocities carried out against minorities, women, activists and even the #YemenGenocide, but the murder of #JamalKhashoggi should be the last evil act they are allowed to commit." She also called for a boycott of Saudi Arabia's regime, tweeting: "#BDSSaudi." The Saudi Arabian government responded by having dozens of anonymous Twitter troll accounts it controlled post tweets critical of Omar.
Omar condemned China's treatment of its ethnic Uyghur people. In a Washington Post op-ed, Omar wrote, "Our criticisms of oppression and regional instability caused by Iran are not legitimate if we do not hold Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to the same standards. And we cannot continue to turn a blind eye to repression in Saudi Arabiaa country that is consistently ranked among the worst of the worst human rights offenders." She also condemned the Assad regime in Syria. Omar criticized Trump's decision to impose further sanctions on Iran, saying the sanctions devastated the "country's middle class and increased hostility toward the United States, with tensions between the two countries rising to dangerous levels."
In 2018, Omar came under criticism for statements she made about Israel before she was in the Minnesota legislature. In a 2012 tweet, she wrote, "Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel." The comment, particularly that Israel had "hypnotized the world", was criticized as drawing on antisemitic tropes. Then-The New York Times columnist Bari Weiss wrote that Omar's statement tied into a millennia-old "conspiracy theory of the Jew as the hypnotic conspirator". When asked in an interview how she would respond to American Jews who found the remark offensive, Omar replied: "I don't know how my comments would be offensive to Jewish Americans. My comments precisely are addressing what was happening during the Gaza War and I'm clearly speaking about the way the Israeli regime was conducting itself in that war." After reading Weiss's commentary, Omar apologized for not "disavowing the anti-Semitic trope I unknowingly used".
In March 2019, Omar addressed a rally in support of a Minnesota bill that would ban gay conversion therapy in the state. She co-sponsored a similar bill when she was a member of the Minnesota House. In May 2019, Omar introduced legislation that would sanction Brunei over a recently introduced law that would make homosexual sex and adultery punishable by death. In June 2019, she participated in Twin Cities Pride in Minnesota. In August 2019, Omar wrote on Twitter in support of the Palestinian LGBT rights group Al Qaws after the Palestinian Authority banned Al Qaws's activities in the West Bank.
Omar has opposed a TikTok ban. In March 2024, she raised First Amendment concerns in opposing a bill that would ban the app if its Chinese owner did not sell, saying: "We should create actual standards & regulations around privacy violations across social media companies—not target platforms we don't like."
On March 12, Omar was asked about TikTok-related national security concerns, such as China using the app to ramp up divisions in the U.S., and replied, "We had an intel briefing, and none of the information that was provided to us really was persuasive in the fact that there is anything to be really concerned", adding, "for the first time in our nation's history, Americans have access to real images [through TikTok] of the horrors that are experienced by Palestinians daily."
Two Republican candidates for congressional office have called for Omar's execution. In November 2019, Danielle Stella, Omar's Republican opponent for Congress, was banned from Twitter for suggesting that Omar be hanged for treason if found guilty of passing information to Iran. In December 2019, George Buck, another Republican running for Congress, also suggested that Omar be hanged for treason. In response, Buck was removed from the National Republican Congressional Committee's Young Guns program. Neither candidate won their primary election.
On July 14, 2019, Trump tweeted that The Squad—a group that consists of Omar and three other young congresswomen of color, most of whom were born and raised in the U.S.—should "go back" to the "places from which they came". In response, Omar said Trump was "stoking white nationalism" because he was "angry that people like us are serving in Congress and fighting against your hate-filled agenda." Two days later, the House of Representatives voted 240–187 to condemn Trump's "racist comments". On July 17, it was reported that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lists the phrase "Go back to where you came from" as an example of "harassment based on national origin".
At a July 17 campaign rally in North Carolina, Trump made additional comments about The Squad: "They never have anything good to say. That's why I say, 'Hey if you don't like it, let 'em leave, let 'em leave, and "I think in some cases they hate our country". He made a series of false and misleading claims about Omar, including allegations that she had praised al-Qaeda and "smeared" American soldiers who had fought in the Battle of Mogadishu by bringing up the numerous Somali civilian casualties. The crowd reacted by chanting, "Send her back, Send her back." Trump later called the crowd "incredible people, incredible patriots" and accused Omar of racism and antisemitism. On July 19, he falsely claimed that Omar and the rest of The Squad had used the term "evil Jews".
Foreign media has widely covered Trump's remarks about Omar and The Squad. The social media hashtag #IStandWithIlhanOmar was soon trending in the United States and other countries. Many foreign politicians condemned Trump's comments. On July 19, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "I reject [Trump's comments] and stand in solidarity with the congresswomen he targeted."
On April 11, 2019, the front page of the New York Post carried an image of the World Trade Center burning following the September 11 terrorist attacks and a quotation from a speech Omar gave the previous month. The headline read, "REP. ILHAN OMAR: 9/11 WAS 'SOME PEOPLE DID SOMETHING, and a caption underneath added, "Here's your something ... 2,977 people dead by terrorism." The Post was quoting a speech Omar had given at a recent Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) meeting. In the speech Omar said, "CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us [Muslims in the U.S.] were starting to lose access to our civil liberties." (CAIR was founded in 1994, but many new members joined after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.)
On April 12, President Trump retweeted a video that edited Omar's remarks to remove context, showing her saying, "Some people did something." Some Democratic representatives condemned Trump's retweet, predicting that it would incite violence and hatred. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on Trump to "take down his disrespectful and dangerous video" and asked the U.S. Capitol Police to increase its protection of Omar.
In November 2021, Republican Representative Lauren Boebert said she had shared an elevator with Omar, and that she and a Capitol Police officer both mistook Omar for a terrorist. Boebert referred to Omar as the "Jihad Squad". Omar said that she had not shared an elevator with Boebert, that the story was made up, and that Boebert's comments were "anti-Muslim bigotry".
Following a July 2019 tweet by Trump that The Squad—a group that consists of Omar and three other congresswomen of color who were born in the United States—should "go back" to the "places from which they came", Omar and the other members of the Squad held a press conference that was taped by CNN and posted to social media.
Education
Ilhan Omar obtained her bachelor's degree in political science and international studies from North Dakota State University in 2011. She also holds a master's degree in public policy from the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, which she completed in 2016.
In summary, Ilhan Omar is a dynamic figure in American politics, known for her progressive policies and her role as a trailblazer for immigrant communities. Her career and personal life have been subjects of both admiration and scrutiny, but she remains committed to serving her constituency and advancing social justice causes.
Omar attended Thomas Edison High School, from which she graduated in 2001, and volunteered as a student organizer. She graduated from North Dakota State University in 2011 with a bachelor's degree, majoring in political science and international studies. Omar was a policy fellow at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
Omar has frequently been the target of online hate speech. According to a study by the Social Science Research Council of more than 113,000 tweets about Muslim candidates in the weeks leading up to the 2018 midterm elections, Omar "was the prime target. Roughly half of the 90,000 tweets mentioning her included hate speech or Islamophobic or anti-immigrant language." According to the study, "Key themes included Muslims as subhumans or 'Trojan horses' seeking to impose Shariah law on America.... A large proportion of these trolls were likely bots or automated accounts run by people, organizations or state actors seeking to spread political propaganda and hate speech. That's based on telltale iconography, naming patterns, webs of linkages and the breadth of the postelection scrubbing."
In 2002, Omar became engaged to Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi (né Aden). She has said they had an unofficial, faith-based Islamic marriage. The couple had two children together, including Isra Hirsi, one of the three principal organizers of the school strike for climate in the US. Omar has said that she and Hirsi divorced within their faith tradition in 2008.
