Like Houdini, U.S. Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-5) has often extricated herself from the seemingly inescapable. She has skirted scandals that would entrap lesser mortals. However, as with all escape artists, there comes a “fix” that exceeds even your enhanced powers. For Rep. Omar, that fix may have finally arrived.
Omar entered Congress in 2019 with questions trailing her. There were questions about her marriage history, including whether she had married her brother. These questions have never been satisfactorily laid to rest. There were also questions about numerous traffic violations and an arrest. And there was an issue about Omar accepting speaking fees when she was a new member of the Minnesota state house.
Once in Washington and on a national stage, she regularly generated more controversy with statements that were condemned as antisemitic. More controversial statements have followed: dismissive remarks about the 9/11 terrorist attack on America, statements disparaging Charlie Kirk after his murder, and more.
As the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote on June 19, 2019: “Omar’s political rise has been marred by a series of unforced errors…Every month seems to bring a fresh problem.” Over seven years, nothing changed for Omar.
Throughout her series of self-inflicted entanglements, Omar has managed to wriggle free. Her usual escape route has been liberally playing race, gender, and heritage cards. The AP reported her statement responding to one of the many allegations facing her: “‘We choose not to further the narrative of those who oppose us,’ Omar’s statement said, adding that she believes the claims are being made by people who want to stop a black, female Muslim from sitting in Congress.”
And so, Omar has walked away from scandal after scandal by talking her way out or simply choosing not to respond, knowing the media will give up trying to unravel the Gordian knots of her marriage history and controversial statements.
However, now comes a different type of scandal. Scandals not of ephemeral words but of hard numbers — very, very large — numbers. And they come from a variety of sources.
First is Omar’s filing of her own House financial disclosure forms, where she reported almost no wealth, then up to $30 million last year, and then just recently back to almost no wealth. That’s quite an accounting error.
Next are questions arising from Rep. Omar’s involvement in the massive fraud being uncovered in Minneapolis. Unlike past scandals, where Omar cited prejudice against her heritage as prompting questions, she is potentially personally connected to a restaurant implicated in the burgeoning scandal.
It is one thing for Omar to have been controversial in words; it is another when Omar stokes controversy with money. Money comes in numbers and its numbers leave trails.
To make matters worse for Omar, Congress is in the midst of a “spring cleaning” of its House. U.S. Democrat Rep. Swalwell (CA-14), U.S. Republican Rep. Gonzalez (TX-23), and U.S. Democrat Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick (FL-20) have all had to resign or face expulsion. Cherfilus-McCormick is particularly notable because even the attributes she shares with Omar could not save her from a financial scandal in which she was accused of stealing $5 million in COVID-19 relief funds.
Cherfilus-McCormick also faced charges of violating over two dozen other House rules. Again, like Omar, she had significant baggage. Why this could be a problem for Omar is that Democrats currently see a growing opportunity to retake the House this November. According to Real Clear Politics’ average of national, generic ballot polling, Democrats are up by 5.7 percentage points and President Trump is down 17.2 percentage points in his national job approval average.
The last thing House Democrats want is a distraction—something Omar has always been — heading into what could be a strong midterm for them. And the last thing they need is for that distraction to be attached to a fraud scandal that grows larger by the day—very likely growing larger still between now and November. Getting Omar out now could help simultaneously remove a particular problem and a general problem for Democrats.
What once seemed to be perpetually the right place at the right time for the scandal-churning Omar has suddenly become the wrong place at the wrong time.
Numbers don’t lie, but people lie about numbers and running afoul of numbers gives people something to lie about. After having run afoul of controversy any number of times, Omar may now have run afoul of controversial numbers themselves…and this could make for a controversy even Houdini could not escape.
J.T. Young is the author of the recent book “Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left” from RealClear Publishing. Follow him on Substack.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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