Ilhan Abdullahi Omar (born October 4, 1982) is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district si...
Ilhan Abdullahi Omar (born October 4, 1982) is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district since 2019. She is a member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party.Before her election to Congress, Omar served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2017 to 2019, representing part of Minneapolis. Her congressional district includes all of Minneapolis and some of its suburbs.
Omar is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and has advocated for a living wage, affordable housing, universal healthcare, student loan debt forgiveness, the protection of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She has strongly opposed the immigration policies of the Trump administration, including the Trump travel ban. She has been the subject of several death threats, conspiracy theories, other harassment by political opponents, and false and misleading claims by Donald Trump.A frequent critic of Israel, Omar has denounced its settlement policy and military campaigns in the occupied Palestinian territories, and what she describes as the influence of pro-Israel lobbies.Omar is the first Somali American, the first naturalized citizen of African birth, and the first woman of color to represent Minnesota in the United States Congress. She is also one of the first two Muslim women (along with Rashida Tlaib) to serve in Congress.
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Richard Blumenthal
Richard Blumenthal (; born February 13, 1946) is an American attorney and politician currently serving as the senior United States Senator from Connec...
Richard Blumenthal (; born February 13, 1946) is an American attorney and politician currently serving as the senior United States Senator from Connecticut, a seat to which he was first elected in 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, he is ranked as one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, with a net worth of over $100 million. Previously, he served as Attorney General of Connecticut from 1991 to 2011.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Blumenthal attended Riverdale Country School, a private school in the Bronx. He graduated from Harvard College, where he was editorial chairman of The Harvard Crimson. He studied for a year at Trinity College, Cambridge, in England before attending Yale Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. While at Yale, he was a classmate of Bill and Hillary Clinton. From 1970 to 1976, Blumenthal served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, where he attained the rank of sergeant.
After law school, Blumenthal passed the bar and served as administrative assistant and law clerk for several Washington, D.C. figures. From 1977 to 1981, he was United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut. In the early 1980s he worked in private law practice, including serving as volunteer counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
He first served one term in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1985 to 1987; in 1986 he was elected to the Connecticut Senate and began service in 1987. He was elected as Attorney General of Connecticut in 1990, and served for twenty years. During this period political observers speculated about him as a contender for Governor of Connecticut, but he never pursued the office.
Blumenthal announced his 2010 run for U.S. Senate after incumbent Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd announced his retirement. He faced Linda McMahon, a professional wrestling magnate, in the 2010 election, winning by a 12-point margin with 55 percent of the vote. He was sworn in on January 5, 2011. He was assigned to the Senate Armed Services; Judiciary; Aging; and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees. After the retirement of Joe Lieberman in 2013, Blumenthal became senior senator for the state. He won re-election in 2016 with 63.2% of the vote, becoming the first person to receive more than one million votes in a statewide election in Connecticut.
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