Ilhan Omar
Progressive
Democrat
House Representative
Minnesota - District 5
Current Position: US House Representative MN-5
Running For: House Representative - District 5
Policy Positions
Economic Policy
- For expanding public transit infrastructure including bus rapid transit, light rail, and bike lanes; supports maximizing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act investments for clean energy and resilient grid infrastructure
- For increased federal funding to address clean water infrastructure, including replacing lead service lines, funding Indigenous water infrastructure, and testing and replacing school drinking water systems
- For universal high-speed internet access; supports fully funding the Affordable Connectivity Program, protecting Net Neutrality, and investing in rural broadband infrastructure
- For massively expanding public housing; supports her Homes for All Act to produce 8.5 million new public housing units over 10 years, investing $200 billion more in the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund, fully funding Section 8 vouchers, and expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit
- For converting the mortgage interest deduction to a flat 15% tax credit to extend tax cuts to working and middle-class homeowners; supports fully funding LIHEAP and incentivizing mobile home park sales to resident-owned co-ops or non-profits
- For a more progressive tax system; supports increasing income taxes on the wealthiest Americans, repealing the 2017 Republican tax cuts, closing tax loopholes, repealing fossil fuel tax breaks, and strengthening the estate tax
- For federal funding for the arts; supports preserving funds for the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Museums and Library Services, as well as art and music education in public schools
- For increased federal funding for affordable and accessible housing for people with disabilities
- For strengthening and protecting Social Security benefits
Business & Labor
- Against current free trade agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA; supports renegotiating trade deals to protect American jobs, international worker rights, reduce prescription drug costs, and include climate impact tests
- For a national renters' bill of rights including just-cause eviction protections, right to organize tenant unions, safe living conditions, relocation assistance, and non-discrimination protections for LGBTQIA+, undocumented, and formerly incarcerated people
- For raising the national minimum wage to $17 an hour, establishing a federal jobs guarantee program, mandating paid family leave and sick days, banning right-to-work legislation, passing the PRO Act for collective bargaining rights, and limiting CEO-to-worker pay ratios
- For Wall Street regulation; supports reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act, breaking up 'too-big-to-fail' banks, establishing a tax on speculative Wall Street transactions, and opposing rollbacks of the Dodd-Frank Act
- For raising the federal minimum wage via the Raise the Wage Act and eliminating the sub-minimum wage for workers with disabilities via the Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act
Health Care
- Against privatization of the Veterans Affairs healthcare system; supports expanding VA funding for physical and mental healthcare and eliminating veteran homelessness
- For Medicare for All; supports a single-payer healthcare system guaranteeing coverage for every American with no out-of-pocket costs, including dental, vision, prescription drug, reproductive, and maternal care
- For lowering prescription drug costs; supports shortening patent life of drugs, expanding importation from Canada, allowing Medicare to negotiate all drug prices, and enforcing antitrust laws against pharmaceutical companies
Education
- For universal pre-kindergarten, affordable childcare, tuition-free public two- and four-year colleges, and cancellation of all existing student debt
- For full federal funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA Full Funding Act) to ensure free and appropriate public education for all students with disabilities
Environment
- For the Green New Deal and 100% renewable energy nationwide; supports prohibiting new fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure, ending $757 billion in fossil fuel subsidies, honoring the Paris Climate Agreement, and creating an international Loss and Damage Fund for climate-impacted countries
Civil Rights
- Against racial profiling; supports banning all racial profiling by federal, state, and local agencies and ending FBI programs like Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) and Black Identity Extremism
- For abortion rights; supports codifying Roe v. Wade, eliminating the Hyde Amendment, providing abortion coverage regardless of income or insurance, ensuring contraception access at no cost, and preventing reinstatement of the global gag rule
- For LGBTQIA+ rights; supports banning conversion therapy, passing the Equality Act, protecting gender-affirming medical care, fighting religious liberty exemptions used to undermine LGBTQIA+ rights, and ensuring transgender incarcerated individuals are housed according to their gender identity
- For abortion rights and reproductive freedom; supports codifying Roe v. Wade into federal law, repealing the Hyde Amendment to expand abortion access for Medicaid enrollees, fighting against the Global Gag Rule, and protecting access to contraception and IVF
Voting Rights & Democracy
- For restoring voting rights to people who have completed their sentences
- Against Citizens United and Super PACs; supports overturning Citizens United, increasing campaign finance transparency, prohibiting corporations convicted of fraud from making political contributions, and allowing candidates to receive public matching funds for small-dollar donations
- Against lobbying on behalf of countries with human rights violations; supports strengthening laws regulating foreign government lobbying
- For expanding voting access; supports protecting the Voting Rights Act, making Election Day a national holiday, automatic voter registration for 18-year-olds, expanding early and absentee voting, and ensuring adequate polling place availability
- For barring insurrectionists from public office; supports arresting and charging those responsible for the January 6th Capitol attack and codifying the presidential election certification process
- For passing the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact
- For expanding the Supreme Court; supports adding justices, implementing a binding Code of Ethics, creating an Inspector General for accountability, instituting term limits, and impeaching corrupt justices
Immigration & Foreign Affairs
- Against endless wars and military aggression; supports ending U.S. involvement in wars in Syria, Yemen, and Somalia, reducing military spending, eliminating the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, cutting the F-35 program, and scaling back U.S. military bases worldwide
- Against broad-based sanctions and economic blockades on countries; supports ending embargoes that punish civilian populations
- For the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal) and diplomatic solutions to conflicts with North Korea and Iran; opposes military conflict with these countries
- For a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians; supports an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, ending the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, ending the siege of Gaza, and withholding offensive weapons transfers and military aid to Israel while it continues to violate international law; opposes use of U.S. taxpayer dollars for human rights abuses
- Against weapons sales or transfers to countries violating human rights or international law; supports Ukraine's defense against Russian aggression
- For comprehensive immigration reform; supports abolishing ICE, ending deportation and detention programs, opposing border wall expansion and border militarization, protecting sanctuary cities, creating pathways to citizenship for DREAMERS, TPS recipients, and all undocumented people, and expanding refugee and asylum-seeker admissions
Public Safety
- Against private prisons; supports banning for-profit incarceration and ending solitary confinement
- For legalizing recreational cannabis nationwide and expunging records and granting amnesty for those incarcerated for cannabis-related offenses; supports ending the War on Drugs and mandatory minimum sentencing for low-level offenses
- For demilitarizing police departments and federal investigations into local departments using practices like arrest quotas
- Against assault weapons; supports banning the sale of assault weapons and building on the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act
- For universal background checks for all firearm sales; supports closing the gun show loophole and fully funding the National Instant Criminal Background Check System
- For strengthening red flag laws to prevent convicted domestic and animal abusers from accessing guns
- For reducing police presence in schools via the Counseling Not Criminalization in Schools Act, replacing law enforcement with counseling for students of color and students with disabilities