Results are set to start coming in tonight in the Ilhan Omar Election, with Democratic incumbent Ilhan Omar facing Republican challenger John Nagel in Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District. Polls close at 8 p.m., and the first returns will begin to show whether Omar can hold the seat she has held since 2018.
The race matters beyond one night because Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District includes Minneapolis and a wide ring of nearby communities, from Brooklyn Center and Crystal to Edina, Golden Valley, New Hope, Richfield, Robbinsdale, St. Anthony, Fort Snelling, Columbia Heights, Fridley, Hilltop and part of Spring Lake Park. Voters there are deciding who will represent the district in Congress, and the count will start with whatever ballots are processed soon after the doors close.
Nagel enters the contest as a lifelong resident of St. Louis Park, a former Minnesota State Patrol trooper who served for 30 years and has never held public office. He is running on lower taxes, stronger border security and stricter immigration policies, while Omar is seeking another term after first winning election in 2018 as the first African refugee to serve in Congress and the first woman of color to represent Minnesota.
The race is taking place under a cloud that has followed Omar for weeks. Federal investigators raided her home in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 12, and Department of Homeland Security leaders said the raid is part of an ongoing criminal investigation tied to fraud allegations. She has not been charged with a crime, and no evidence of wrongdoing has been made public. Current and former officials have said they found some evidence in 2016 that her 2009 marriage to a man suspected of being her brother was fraudulent, reportedly to help him secure a green card.
That leaves the contest with a split-screen feel: a routine count of ballots on one side, and an unresolved federal investigation on the other. Omar has often been a target for President Donald Trump and other Republicans, and tonight's returns will show whether voters are focused more on the race in front of them or the questions trailing it. The first answer will come when the initial vote totals land after 8 p.m.
