Ilhan Omar

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has represented Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2019 (116th Congress-Present). Omar was the first African refugee to become a Member of Congress, the first woman of color to represent Minnesota, and one of the first two Muslim-American women elected to Congress. Omar is a member of the House Budget Committee and the House Education and Workforce Committee where she is a member of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, Pensions, and the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections. She is an experienced policy analyst, organizer, public speaker, and advocate. Before running for office, Omar worked as a community educator at the University of Minnesota, was a Policy Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and was a Senior Policy Aide for the Minneapolis City Council. In 2016, she was elected as the Minnesota House Representative for District 60B, making her the highest-elected Somali-American public official in the United States and the first Somali-American state legislator. She graduated from North Dakota State University with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Studies.