Rumor has it that Minneapolis City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins is being lobbied to run against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) in the 2020 primary for Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District.
“Breaking: I have heard a rumor that Andrea Jenkins of the Minneapolis City Council is being lobbied to run against Rep. Ilhan Omar in a primary next election. Game changer if true,” Minnesota attorney Nathan Hansen wrote on Twitter Wednesday.
https://twitter.com/nathanmhansen/status/1095478515670175747
Jenkins is best known for being the first transgender African-American woman elected to public office in the United States. In January, she drew attention after calling a press conference to discuss her experience of being chastised at a Minneapolis coffee shop for handing out political literature.
“We are not over racism, sexism, transphobia, and homophobia in this community by any stretch of the imagination. I want to be on the forefront of us as a community dealing with these issues head on,” Jenkins said, and announced that she would be hosting a forum on race.
The claim comes at a time when Omar is facing substantial criticism over her anti-Semitic comments. Most recently, Omar suggested that Jewish money is to blame for bipartisan support of Israel, which was widely condemned as a “longstanding anti-Semitic trope and one of the pillars of modern anti-Semitism.”
President Donald Trump addressed Omar’s remarks during a Tuesday cabinet meeting, and said she should resign from Congress.
“One another thing I want to say is that anti-Semitism has no place in the United State Congress, and Congresswoman Omar is—terrible what she said. And I think she should either resign from Congress, or she should certainly resign from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. What she said is so deep-seated in her heart that her lame apology—that’s what it was, it was lame, and she didn’t mean a word of it,” Trump said, as The Minnesota Sun reported.
– – –
Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Andrea Jenkins” by Andrea Jenkins.
