Since her election to the House of Representatives, Ilhan Omar has had a knack for generating national headlines.  Initially, the headlines were positive.  Here was a young Muslim woman who had come to this country at age 10, after having escaped the Somali civil war with her family and then spending four years in a Kenyan refugee camp.  Omar is also extremely photogenic and had impeccable progressive credentials.  She was a perfect fit for Minnesota's 5th District, which encompasses Minneapolis and surrounding areas.

The last time the 5th District sent a Republican to the House of Representatives was in 1960.  The same district has also begun to boast a large Muslim population in recent years.  Indeed, it has the largest concentration of Somali immigrants in America.  As of 2016, there were estimated to be between 40,000 and 52,000 Somalis, both immigrants and first-generation children, in Minneapolis, with some putting the number as high as 80,000.

Omar's problem has been that, since her ascension to the House and her high profile in "the Squad" of four newly elected Progressive young women, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she's been dogged by controversy.  She's proven herself to be extremely hostile to Jews and Israel, so much so that the House tried to censure her specifically for that anti-Semitism, only to collapse before the rising anti-Semitism in the entire body.  Instead, it issued a vague pronouncement saying, essentially, that it hates hate.

Omar also aroused the wrath of many Americans when video footage emerged showing her at a CAIR event describing 9/11 as a day on which "some people did something."  That statement came wrapped in a package of complaining that Muslims in America have  been "second-class" citizens since 9/11, never mind that not a single law or other government initiative has passed downgrading Islam in America.  It was a false, whining, disrespectful thing to say.

Just recently, Omar joined with other Democrats in expressing outrage that Trump would dare kill an Iranian terrorist.  She also showed what's becoming common with her, which is a signal lack of intelligence, when she confused copper nickel mining with oil mining.

Given Minneapolis's true blue politics, none of the above should affect her standing with voters there.  On the things that matter to them, she has a perfect record political slate: she supports student loan debt forgiveness; Medicare for All (i.e., socialized medicine); open borders; ending ICE; anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism; LGBT rights; high minimum wages; and, of course, she despises Trump.  Indeed, through tweets, she's occasionally entered into a war of wits with Trump, despite the handicap that she is manifestly unarmed.

The big problem for Omar now is that she's being investigated by the FBI and other federal agencies for immigration fraud, tax fraud, and student loan fraud.  It's entirely possible that the federal government, because she's in a protected class under the progressive rubric, will back down from the investigation, just as the British police refused to look into all the child-trafficking and sex abuse in Rotherham and Manchester.  It wasn't politically worth it for them to run afoul of Britain's Muslim community, and the feds may feel the same about America's Muslim community vis-à-vis Omar's potentially criminal actions.

Still, it's a stain on Omar's record.  Moreover, scuttlebutt has it that many in Minneapolis's Muslim community are not happy with Omar's progressive politics or her increasingly open America hatred.

Enter Dalia al-Aqidi.  Dalia is also a Muslim refugee, having left war-torn Iraq for American when she was a child.  Unlike Omar, Dalia loves her new country.  She became a journalist and covered the Middle East, especially Iraq.  She understands what happens when a political party is dedicated to tearing the country apart.

Dalia is running as a Republican to take Omar's seat.  She exploded into national awareness Friday when she posted an extraordinary campaign video, one in which she celebrates America's virtues and promises, if elected, to work for, not against, America and its values:

Being a Republican in Minneapolis is a handicap, but Dalia is attractive and a fighter, and she should appeal to the more conservative element among the city's Somali voters, as well as disaffected Democrats who, while liberal in their values, have tired of the newly woke Democrat party's hard leftism.