Are Minneapolis Democrats Sane Enough to Dump Ilhan Omar, Elect Don Samuels?
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In the summer of 2020, as crime skyrocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic and in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, Don Samuels worried about his North Minneapolis neighborhood.
For 25 years, Samuels and his wife, Sondra, have been leaders in the effort to stabilize the Jordan neighborhood, one of the most challenged in the city, and to fight for resources. Samuels was proud of what he and his neighbors had accomplished over the years, but he was concerned that everything they’d built was unraveling, fast.
People were running red lights, driving on the sidewalks, and driving vehicles without license plates, seemingly with no consequences, he said. Drug dealers operated openly on the streets. The sound of gunshots was commonplace. The Minneapolis Police Department, understaffed and losing officers by the day to retirement, was slow to respond to his neighbors’ calls.
Left-wing activists, incensed by Floyd’s killing, demanded the city defund its police department. A majority of city council members were on board, as was the district’s Democratic-socialist congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, who called the Minneapolis Police Department “rotten to the root.” The loudest voices were clear in their conviction: The police were the problem.
Samuels, on the other hand, was confident a quiet majority of residents weren’t buying that radical proposition. The police department needed reform, but that didn’t mean Minneapolis needed fewer or no police. In Samuels’s estimation, the city needed more and better cops.
So Samuels and seven of his neighbors sued the city, claiming — correctly, the state’s Supreme Court eventually ruled — that Minneapolis’s police staffing level was so low that it violated the city charter. Last fall, Samuels was a leader in the successful effort to fight off a ballot initiative that would have eliminated the police department altogether, replacing it with a vaguely defined public-safety department. The measure was soundly defeated by 56 percent of voters.
On Tuesday, Samuels is hoping to chalk up another political victory: knocking out Omar in Minnesota’s Democratic primary, and becoming the clear favorite to take her place in Congress.
Samuels is a soft-spoken 73-year-old Jamaican immigrant, as well as a former professional toy designer, a former Minneapolis city councilman, and a one-time school-board member. He currently leads a micro-grant company that helps poor people start small businesses and solve local problems. He is an underdog in his race against Omar, a political celebrity and “Squad” member, who has consistently been a lightning rod for controversy, including for regularly making what many view as antisemitic and anti-American comments, as well as for her far-left politics, her misuse of campaign funds, and her headline-making antics and scandals.
In an interview with National Review, Samuels said he initially supported Omar, a former Somali refugee, hoping that her “multiple minority statuses would make her a real uniter.”
“Instead, she has proven to be a divisive force in Congress,” Samuels said. “Over time, we expected her to kind of learn and get better at the job. In fact, it seems as if her predisposition for conflict and standing out and not collaborating is getting worse.”
Omar’s campaign has attempted to paint Samuels as a corporate-backed conservative, but on most issues, Samuels is no right-winger. He describes himself as an Obama Democrat. His top priorities, if elected, include passing gun-control measures, working with President Joe Biden to create green jobs, and protecting abortion access with a federal law. He wants to strengthen the Affordable Care Act with a public option, and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
But there are reasons for conservatives and others on the right to wish him well on Tuesday. In addition to his general support of police, Samuels has taken heat over the years from the left for his support of school choice and vouchers. He said that while he supports improving the public education system, on the individual level it is “immoral” to force poor parents to send their kids to failing neighborhood schools that are lacking in resources.
“I support every mom who wants the best for her child and the best school,” he said. “For those who are aware enough to know there is better, and to want it, we cannot deny them that opportunity.”
Most importantly, Samuels likely has the best chance of defeating Omar this year in Minnesota’s fifth congressional district, the most Democratic-leaning district in the state, and up there as one of the most liberal in the country. In total, there are five people competing for the Democratic nomination. Samuels’s campaign has raised more money than Omar’s. He was endorsed by the Star Tribune, the largest newspaper in the state. And he has the support of Minneapolis’s popular former police chief, Medaria Arradondo, as well as several former chairs of the state’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor party.
“I think he’s a pragmatic individual who’s been a great leader in our community,” said Mike Erlandson, a former DFL chair and one-time chief of staff to former fifth-district congressman Martin Sabo. “I’m not sure that any individual and their spouse, respectively, have worked harder fighting for Minneapolis than Don Samuels has.”
Samuels is pitching himself as a collaborator and a compromiser, someone who has a lifetime of experience developing relationships, engaging with his community, building coalitions, and not gravitating to the extremes. If elected, he said, he plans to designate a half hour a day to meeting his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. He hopes that will help Republican members of Congress to see him not as a political enemy but as a colleague with a different perspective.
“Once you have a relationship with someone, they can actually say, ‘You know, I disagree with you, but I like you and I trust you. So, I’m going to give on this, and then we’ll compromise,’” Samuels said. Building bridges, he said, is easier, “if someone sees the humanity in you, and trusts you, trusts that you mean the best, that you love the country, and that you have children like them, and you want to see the same good future for them and your children and their children.”
In addition to attacking Omar for her anti-police rhetoric, Samuels has hammered her for her votes against Russian oil sanctions, against the seizure of Russian oligarch assets, and against the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which wasn’t big enough for her. She was one of only three House Democrats to vote against a $1.9 billion spending bill to increase Capitol security after the January 6 riot. Locally, she urged voters last fall not to rank the city’s left-wing incumbent mayor, Jacob Frey, on their ranked-choice ballot, in an effort to defeat him, in part because of his reluctance to defund the police.
“She’s been out of touch with voters,” Samuels said of Omar. He said that the Somali elders he’s met with are all supporting his candidacy, and he noted that Omar was loudly booed in July when she took the stage during a local concert by a Somali singer.
Ilhan Omar got booed onstage at a concert featuring Somali singer Soldaan Seraar in Minnesota last night.
People in the crowd chanted "Get out!" & shouted "Get the f*ck out of here!". pic.twitter.com/sggii7h6sO— Leftism (@LeftismForU) July 3, 2022
Still, defeating Omar, a progressive darling in a decidedly progressive district, will be difficult. She is officially endorsed by the DFL and has the backing of its members. Omar’s camp released a poll last month that showed her winning 60 percent of likely Democratic voters. Samuels’s camp responded with their own poll, showing him with a slight lead.
In 2020, Omar’s more moderate opponent, local attorney Antone Melton-Meaux, went on to lose the primary by close to 20 points, despite a massive fundraising advantage. In a preview of her race with Samuels, Omar told the online MinnPost, “The people I represent know the work I do, and I predict they will reelect me by a huge margin.” But Samuels notes that 2022 is a far different political environment from 2020, when the defund movement was in full swing, and the far Left was energized, with Donald Trump as their political foil.
Erlandson said the winner will be the candidate who is best able to turn out their voters on Tuesday. He said it’s difficult to get Minnesotans interested in August primary campaigns when they’re more focused on getting the most out of what’s left of their short summer season. But he believes last November’s vote may foreshadow this year’s election.
“If the same people who showed up to vote in the Minneapolis election last year show up in the primary, Don will be a member of the United States Congress,” Erlandson said. “The key word is ‘if.’ But I do believe that people are looking for pragmatic leaders right now.”
Samuels believes he will win with a coalition of old-school Democrats, tired of years of loud and divisive politics, along with the black voters who overwhelmingly opposed the defund movement. “We know where those people are, and we’re going after them,” Samuels said.
At 73 years old, Samuels is almost twice the age of the 39-year-old Omar. When asked how long he thought he could serve, he said maybe three terms. In one regard, he said he sees his age as an advantage. He’s comfortable in his skin, and he’s not running for Congress to become a celebrity or to stroke his ego. “I’m at the wisest phase of my life,” he said.
“I’m connected with my community,” Samuels said. “I have a sense of what the voters want, not just in my block or in my neighborhood, but in this city. I’ve been around a while, and I know the pendulum has swung from the precarious cliff’s edge of the extreme-Left philosophy of defunding the police and contentious advocacy, and it’s swinging back to wanting to get things done. We have an exhausted majority that is looking for collaborative leadership. I want to provide that, and I’m confident that the people of this district are in that mindset, and it’s time for a change.”
