U.S. Army vet challenging The Squad's Omar says U.S. heading toward 'socialist dictatorship'

A Somalian-born Army veteran is running on the GOP ticket in Minnesota to unseat progressive Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar with a warning that the U.S. is headed toward a "socialist dictatorship." 

The candidate, Shukri Abdirahman, argues that Omar's constituents "feel very neglected."

To be sure, Omar, who like Abdirahman was born in Somalia and fled with her family, has face similar criticism in the past.

Critics have said the outspoken congresswoman appears more interested in being a national politician than addressing constituents' needs and point to her anti-Semitic comment in 2019 for which she was forced to apologize.

Abdirahman, a Muslim also like Omar, said she came to the U.S. with her family to break away from a socialist dictatorship in Somalia. 

"After the Civil War, we went to Kenya and stayed in the slums of Kenya in a refugee camp, waiting to be vetted to come to the United States," she recently told Just the News. "That all took about almost four years ... so we can arrive here legally, along with my family."

Omar, who this year is seeking a third term, list as top legislative priorities free-tuition college, the elimination of student loan debt, a 100% "clean energy" economy and Medicare for All.

She represents Minnesota's heavily-Democratic 5th congressional district.

Cicely Davis, former Minnesota state director of the BLEXIT Foundation, and former NBA Player Royce White are also running in the Republican primary to unseat Omar. 

Abdirahman joined the military shortly after high school, inspired by the events of Black Hawk Down, the U.S. military's 1993 operation in the Somalian capital city of Mogadishu to end the threat of famine that eventually shifted to establish democracy and restore a secure government.

"Having lost my brothers in arms to safeguard me, ... I joined to pay them back and to pay this great nation back for giving my family and I a safe haven," she said. 

Abdirahman, a mother of three, said she was going to pursue medical school but "could not sit still" watching what's happening in the country and in Omar's district.

"It terrified me because we're on the brink of a socialist dictatorship, and I have children," she said. "As a mother, their future and what's happening did not sit well with me. I wanted to serve my country again and prevent it from, you know, heading to the socialist dictatorship direction."

Abdirahman said the majority of the communities in her district are full of minority and immigrant residents and "by nature they are conservative."

"They feel neglected with crime-ridden streets" said Abdirahman, who district includes all of Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed by a police officer in May 2020. "My opponent ... she's nowhere to be found and in fact has led the referendum to defund the police, the very police that are supposed to keep the streets safe."

She said many businesses, many of them minority owned, are still boarded up as a result of the pandemic and the protests that occurred after Floyd' death.

"I am a very electable candidate because I know my community.," she said. "I have engaged them."