>> Much like other progressive lawmakers who easily got reelected.
Representative Ilhan Omar did, in fact, win her reelection bid in Minnesota's fifth congressional
district.
And of course, prior to the election, it was reported that she was upfront tough reelection
bid.
>> And there's all this fear mongering, she's probably gonna struggle.
There's all this money coming in to her opponent.
But early Wednesday, Representative Omar was leading her chief opponent Melton-Meaux by
more than [17] percentage points.
I mean, that number might have changed a little bit since this morning, but that's a pretty
wide margin John.
Now, Ilhan Omar tweeted the following.
In Minnesota, we know that organized people will always be organized money.
Tonight, our movement didn't just win.
We earned a mandate for change.
Despite outside efforts to defeat us, we once again broke turnout records.
Despite the attacks, our support has only grown.
And just to give you an idea of how much money was poured into her opponents candidacy.
During the second quarter of 2020, Melton-Meaux raised six times as much as Omar did.
And an analysis from the MinnPost, Minnesota post, I'm guessing, showed about 20% of his
large-dollar donations came with bundling from pro-Israel political action committee.
So one thing that representative Omar is known for and both criticized for is her criticism
of Israel's right wing government.
And so she was certainly a target for a pack for instance, but apparently that money wasn't
powerful enough to defeat her message.
>> Yeah, that's true and I know it's a totally needless sidetrack.
But I love that you would never have from bundling from a pro-America pack, what do
you mean pro the whole country?
Don't try to be a little bit more specific about that, I know that's how it works in
American politics.
Anyway, yeah, she was outraised significantly in that last quarter.
And when you go around the country and you look at the money disparity in the original
races for some of these candidates, and for the reelection races as well like being outspent
six times is actually kinda competitive for the progressive.
I mean, there was down in the race in Kentucky, I think it was I think it was a 48 times disparity.
If I remember correctly, this massive amount.
And so on top of all of the advantages that I would point out to the establishment, you
really save some money.
If you back some of these progressives, maybe we wouldn't have to spend so much needlessly
duking it out to reassert the establishments control over these seats.
Anyway, in terms of her winning, it's great news.
It would have been horrible to lose any members of the squad.
They've basically been the only things keeping myself and a lot of other people feeling like
there's any reason for optimism in American politics for a couple of years now.
And knowing that we're gonna have all of them and they're gonna have support from new Congressmen
and women in just six months or so.
And that's definitely a good feeling.
And when I think about the lessons that we can take from the fact that Ilhan Omar won
re election and that all the other members of the squad have, I think automatically about
the insufferable things that would have been said have they lost.
And I just think about, well, clearly, we've learned the opposite then.
Because think about if they'd lost, if he had lost or if Ilhan lost, it would be first
of, all your positions are way too radical.
Out of the mainstream no one's gonna actually accept that, maybe they'll be excited and
they'll be confused initially.
But then they're gonna learn or they're gonna move on.
That clearly isn't true.
Saying these extreme things and really making a big spectacle of yourself, trying to dominate
the conversation.
Having protests in Capitol Hill, all of this stuff is a career killer.
They might have said, but it hasn't happened.
Rasheeda Talib, she was criticized for coming out in support of Trump's impeachment early
and vocally and they've won reelection.
So maybe there are some lessons to be learned here, I guess.
>> Yeah.
>> It's not in my financial interest to not learn them though, for some people that's
not the case.
>> Well, look, I agree with you.
I think that, especially after Bernie Sanders his defeat, it was important to show that
progressive ideology, progressive policy is still a priority for a lot of voters in the
country.
And it's not just about the squad getting reelected, although I agree that's incredibly
important.
We now have more progressives elected into Congress.
You have Jamal Bowman, for instance.
You have Cory bush.
We're gonna fight like hell to get Alex Moore elected even though corporate Democrats are
doing everything they can to try to destroy his candidacy with nonsense.
And we will talk about that a little bit later, but I think a lot of people saw this election
as a test for progressive ideology.
And I do think that we're just right on the policies and this presidential election, I
think has a lot to do with people who are fearful.
They don't wanna see Trump get reelected.
And ultimately, it was about ensuring that the most electable person, quote, unquote,
goes to basically goes against Trump, right?
Now I obviously disagree that Biden was the strongest candidate against Trump, but it
doesn't matter.
That's what voters were voting on.
And luckily in this case with Congress, we are winning some seats and making sure that
progressives get reelected.
I do also wanna show you some of the quick wishful thinking, maybe that went on in the
media.
So I'm just gonna give you a few examples of the headlines that many of us saw prior
to this congressional race.
One of them reads, Ilhan Omar's career on the line in tough primary.
That was from Politico, wrong again.
Al Jazeera wrote, US Representative Ilhan Omar readies for tough primary challenge.
And I'll read one more for you.
Squad members Rashida Tlaib who got reelected.
Ilhan Omar, got reelected facing tough primary challengers.
Not so much, I guess, not so much.
Turns out that sometimes message and policy is far more effective than outside money.
>> Yes.
>> Just keeping it real.