明尼阿波利斯-连续第二个周期，两届明尼苏达州众议员伊尔汉·奥马尔希望捍卫她在该州第五国会选区的席位包括明尼阿波利斯及其西郊，来自资金雄厚的民主党初选挑战者。
奥马尔在过去的国会初选中轻松获胜，包括在2018年的第一场比赛中，并期待与前明尼阿波利斯市议会成员唐·塞缪尔斯(Don Samuels)竞争。
塞缪尔斯试图将奥马尔描绘成在犯罪问题上过于被动的人，试图激励去年秋天反对失败的投票倡议的选民，如果该倡议获得通过，将极大地重塑明尼阿波利斯的警察局。
“从很多方面来说，唐·塞缪尔斯是警察改革的代言人，而不是奥马尔成为‘解散警察’的代言人，”圣保罗哈姆莱恩大学政治学教授大卫·舒尔茨在周二初选前夕告诉美国广播公司新闻。
明尼苏达大学教授拉里·雅各布斯(Larry Jacobs)说，塞缪尔斯在这个问题上进行了有效的竞选，维持了专家们所描述的击败奥马尔的微弱希望，奥马尔当选为国会第一位索马里裔美国人，并作为“小队”的一员在全国享有声誉，该小队是一个小但有影响力的进步代表团体。
然而，像其他主要的进步人士一样，奥马尔吸引了更多温和的挑战者。与其他一些议员不同，她多次保住了自己的席位。
“我们区一直是全县最进步的区之一。我们已经很久没有在我们的选区选举温和派了，我不相信这个选区的人民现在会这样做，”她周二告诉美国广播公司新闻。
塞缪尔想要改变这种状况。
“他对(犯罪问题)的描述对奥马尔来说是一个挑战，因为她有很多支持塞缪尔的选民，”雅各布教授告诉美国广播公司新闻。"毫无疑问，这是一种有效的竞选策略。"
然而，专家们怀疑萨缪尔斯能否在初选中吸引足够多的人去投票，这往往会降低投票率，以抵消奥马尔的优势。他们还表示，人口普查后的选区重划并没有改变该地区的党派构成。
圣奥拉夫学院(St. Olaf College)政治学教授克里斯·查普(Chris Chapp)在谈到奥马尔时说，“在很大程度上，她在意识形态上与她的选区是一致的，她有爱她的选民，他们会在初选中投票支持她。”。
“这真的是一个问题，你能不能在初选中召集足够多的人给你投票——麻烦你在8月9日出来投票?她已经做到了，”克拉普补充道。
2020年，奥马尔面临着一些人预期的来自律师安东尼·梅尔顿-莫的激烈初选竞争，他在选举前几个月超过了她，引起了人们的注意。
但是竞争并不激烈，梅尔顿莫城以大约35，000票的优势远远落后于第二名。
今年的初选吸引了两位候选人的竞争参与在2021年明尼阿波利斯的投票中该提案提议删除纽约市警察局章程中的措辞，包括最低限度的警察经费要求。
奥马尔拥护提议的变革，而塞缪尔则反对变革。这项措施以大约18000票之差未获通过。
奥马尔的竞选团队试图淡化投票倡议和今年初选之间的任何战略联系。
Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks to a reporter before a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol, on July 19, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
Francis Chung/E & E新闻/政治美联社，文件
“那是市政选举。你正在选举市议会和市长，市长负责监督警察局和地方公共安全倡议。这显然是联邦国会选举，”一名高级助手告诉美国广播公司新闻。
“选民们能够分析出伊尔汉·奥马尔不是监督警察部门的人，”这位助手补充道。
埃文·斯图尔特，一名25岁的社会工作者，在雪松河边的一个分局外接受了美国广播公司的采访，奥马尔在那里很受欢迎。他提到有朋友“非常非常关心DACA问题”，指的是对年幼时被非法带到美国的年轻人的移民保护。“我关心他们，我关心他们在美国的公民身份。”
至于犯罪，斯图尔特说他甚至不记得他是如何投票支持去年的投票措施的，但他说，“我确实希望看到警察被重新审视和重组。”
在接受美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)采访时，塞缪尔的竞选经理乔·拉迪诺维奇(Joe Radinovich)列举了候选人之间达成一致的几个领域，包括支持H.R. 1280，或乔治·弗洛伊德(George Floyd)的《治安正义法案》(Justice in Policing Act)，该法案去年在国会提出，但没有获得通过。
但Radinovich说，他认为投票措施确实给初选蒙上了一些阴影。
“主要的主要问题是公共安全，”他说。
Ilhan Omar faces another primary, as her challenger hopes to find some weakness campaigning on crime
MINNEAPOLIS --For the second straight cycle, two-term Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar is hoping todefend her seat in the state's 5th Congressional District, encompassing Minneapolis and its western suburbs, from a well-funded Democratic primary challenger.
Omar has handily won her past congressional primaries, including in her first race in 2018, and looks to do so against Don Samuels, a former Minneapolis City Council member.
Samuels has tried to paint Omar as too passive on crime in an attempt to energize the same voters who turned out last fall against a failed ballot initiative that, if passed, would have dramatically reshaped Minneapolis' police department.
"In many ways Don Samuels is the face of, let's say, police reform -- as opposed to where Omar became a face for 'defund the police,'" David Schultz, a political science professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, told ABC News on the eve of Tuesday's primary.
Samuels has campaigned effectively on the issue, said University of Minnesota professor Larry Jacobs, sustaining what experts nonetheless describe as faint hopes of knocking off Omar, who was elected as Congress's first Somali-American and has a national reputation as a member of the "squad," the small but influential group of progressive representatives.
Like other leading progressives, however, Omarhas drawn more moderate challengers. Unlike some of those other lawmakers, she has repeatedly held her seat.
“Our district has always been one of the most progressive districts in the county. We have not elected a moderate in our district in a long time, and I don’t believe that the people in this district will do that now," she told ABC News on Tuesday.
Samuels wants to change that.
"He has profiled [the issue of crime] in a way that is a challenge for Omar because she's got a good number of constituents who agree with Samuels," Jacobs, the professor, told ABC News. "There's no doubt that it's an effective campaign strategy."
Experts, however, are skeptical that Samuels can draw enough people to the polls in a primary election, which tends to see lower turnout, to counter Omar's advantages. They also say the post-census redistricting did little to change the area's partisan makeup.
"For the most part she's ideologically aligned with her district, and she has constituents that love her and will turn out to vote for her in a primary," Chris Chapp, a professor of political science at St. Olaf College, said of Omar.
"It really is a matter of, can you rally enough folks to vote for you in the primary – to bother to come out to the polls on Aug. 9? And she's been able to do that," Clapp added.
In 2020, Omar faced what some expected to be stiff primary competition from Antone Melton-Meaux, a lawyer who drew notice when he out-raised her in the months leading up to the election.
But the race was not close, and Melton-Meaux finished a distant second by around 35,000 votes.
This year's primary has drawn interest for both candidates' competing involvementin a 2021 Minneapolis ballot measurethat proposed removing language in the city's charter on the police department, including minimum police funding requirements.
Omar championed the proposed changes, while Samuels fought against them. The measure failed by roughly 18,000 votes.
Omar's campaign has sought to play down any strategic connection between the ballot initiative and this year's primary.
"That was a municipal election. You're electing the city council and the mayor, who's in charge of overseeing the police department and local public safety initiatives. This is obviously a federal congressional election," a senior aide told ABC News.
"Voters are able to parse out that Ilhan Omar is not the one overseeing the police department," the aide added.
Evan Stuart, a 25-year-old social worker, spoke with ABC News outside a precinct in Cedar Riverside, where Omar is very popular. He cited having friends who are "very, very caring about the DACA issue," referring to immigration protections for young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as young children. "I care about them and I care about their citizenship status in the United States."
As for crime, Stuart said he didn't even remember how he voted on last year's ballot measure -- but he said, "I do want to see the police looked at again and restructured."
In an interview with ABC News, Samuels' campaign manager, Joe Radinovich, cited several areas of agreement between the candidates, including support for H.R. 1280, or the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which was introduced in Congress last year but has not passed.
But Radinovich said he believed the ballot measure did cast some shadow over the primary.
"Primarily the main issue is on public safety," he said.
