MINNEAPOLIS — Don Samuels is waging his Democratic congressional primary battle against nationally known U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar with the hope that Minneapolis voters will reject her campaign like they did last year's contentious policing ballot measure.
Omar, seeking a third term representing Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District, supported the proposal to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety. Samuels, a former Minneapolis City Council and School Board member, helped organize the successful campaign to defeat it.
"That was the straw, actually, that kind of broke the camel's back for me, that the district wasn't going to be well served and that she could be in there for a long time," said Samuels, 73, a Jamaican immigrant who began organizing against gun violence about 25 years ago after a bullet pierced his north Minneapolis home.
