By Torey Van Oot
Minnesota U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s re-election campaign raised more than $1.1 million over the past three months, her largest quarterly fundraising haul to date as she has come under increasingly frequent attack by President Donald Trump.
Omar has proved a prolific fundraiser in her first year in Washington, despite her status as a freshman lawmaker in a safe Minneapolis district. Her history-making win as one of the first Muslim women and the only Somali-American refugee elected to Congress attracted international coverage. A series of personal and political controversies and a running feud with Trump have further raised her national profile.
The campaign said grassroots support from small-dollar donors fuelled the latest fundraising totals. More than 55,500 donors made contributions to her campaign between July and September, with the average contribution of $14.55, her campaign reported. More than 90% of those contributions were made online.
Omar, who is running for re-election in the heavily Democratic Fifth Congressional District, announced the haul ahead of Tuesday’s deadline for submitting quarterly fundraising reports to the Federal Election Commission.
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, also a Democrat, announced Monday that she raised $1.3 million, ending the third quarter with $2.7 million in the bank. She faces a 2020 challenge from former Re-publican congressman Jason Lewis, who has yet to release his first fundraising report. ■
