Who Is Dalia Al-Aqidi? GOP Iraqi Refugee Launches Challenge Against Ilhan Omar

KEY POINTS

Dalia al-Aqidi is a former White House Correspondent and Iraqi refugee
She fled Saddam Hussein's Iraq with her family while in her 20s
Ilhan Omar won her Minneapolis district with 78% votes in November 2018

Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of the members of the 'Squad' of progressives in the Democratic party, is facing a different kind of GOP challenger in November's election -- an Iraqi Muslim refugee.

Dalia al-Aqidi, who is also a former White House correspondent, said Omar "needs to be stopped" and called out the Somali-born lawmaker for using identity politics.

Omar, a freshman congresswoman from Minnesota, has angered the Jewish community with her expressions of anti-Semitism in the past. In March last year, the House Of Representatives voted to condemn anti-Semitic comments by Omar as part of a broader resolution decrying bigotry. Omar was not named in the resolution,

"I truly believe that I'm strong enough to beat her at her own game," al-Aqidi told Fox News. Al-Aqidi fled Saddam Hussein's Iraq along with her family when she was in her 20s. Omar fled Somalia with her family at age nine.

"Muslims, Christians, Jews are all Americans," al-Aqidi said. "Every time she opens her mouth she says something either anti-U.S. or anti-Semitic."

Omar won her Minneapolis district with 78% votes in November 2018, but has faced voter discontentment over homelessness and gang violence in her district. She faces a challenge from several Republicans this year including al-Aqidi.

Al-Aqidi, who is 51, told the New York Post: "“She’s spreading hatred, and she is spreading racism throughout not only her district, not only her state, but throughout the whole country, and this is very important.”

“She’s hurting the moderate Muslims; Muslims like myself. She doesn’t represent me as a Muslim.”