MINNEAPOLIS, MN — The Ilhan Omar campaign is facing serious scrutiny following allegations about her personal life. As Alpha News reported over the weekend, Powerlineblog.com found evidence that suggested the primary winner of 60B was married to multiple men, with one allegedly being her brother in order help bring him to the United States.
Here is what Alpha News can confirm:
- There are two men via Hennepin County records that have listed marriage records to Ilhan Abdullahi Omar. One marriage license requested in 2002 and a marriage license issued in 2009.
- Alpha News independently verifies that Ilhan Omar filed for a marriage license in 2002 with Ahmed Abdisalan Aden. However the couple never filed the marriage certificates with the State, so no record of marriage exists.
– Tom Lyden of Fox 9 states that someone within the community said that the marriage to her current husband was a cultural one. This marriage would not be recognized by the State of MN as marriages are only recognized by signing a civil marriage license.
– Omar did legally marry in 2009 Ahmed Nur Said Elmi and the State of MN has no record of divorce on file.
– Omar is on record stating that the father of her three children and husband is a man named Ahmed Hirsi.
Image Credit: Ilhan for State Representative – In 2013, a tcdailyplanet.net article cites Omar’s children to be ten and seven years old at that time. Omar had her third child in 2012.
Image Credit: tcplanetdaily.net
- Alpha News has yet to independently confirm that one of these men Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is her brother. However, we have been able to identify via UK LinkedIn that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi matches the description of the photos posted by one “Abdi Johnson” on Somali Post blog. Photos provided by “Abdi Johnson” indicates that Ms. Omar and Mr. Said Elmi are acquaintances.
Image Credit: powerlineblog.com 
Image Credit: UK LinkedIn 
Image Credit: powerlineblog.com - Immediately following inquiries from Alpha News Friday night, the Ilhan Omar for State Representative campaign changed the contact information on their website citing that they have “received hundreds of emails from supporters and interviews requests from media.” Before the Powerlineblog.com story broke, contact information for Omar’s campaign communications director Jean Heyer was available for both phone and email. Heyer’s contacts are now replaced on the site with two generic emails.
Image Credit: Ilhan for State Representative - Ilhan Omar and Ahmed Sur Said Elmi both have Instagram accounts. Both have been made private unless you have permission to view them. This leaves two possibilities:
1. The person called “Abdi Johnson” knows Ms. Omar and/or Ahmed Nur Said Elmi well enough to have access to their private Instagram accounts.
2. These accounts have only been made private recently.
The DFL has been surprisingly quiet this past weekend while these allegations continue to float around as Alpha News has repeatedly tried to get a comment from Rep. Phyllis Kahn, Mohamud Noor, Ilhan Omar’s campaign, and the State DFL Party with no reply. Other outlets have reported similar silence. However, that has not stopped some democrats from voicing their displeasure or making veiled threats towards reporters. Tom Lyden of Fox 9 tweeted out this photo from the President of the Young DFL explicitly trying to intimidate and blackmail a journalist into recanting an article written about Ilhan Omar.
The Omar campaign quietly released a statement on their site stating:
“A number of baseless, absurd rumors that don’t bear repeating have been made recently about my personal life and family. Let me be clear: they are categorically false.
Now, the question that needs to be asked is, “Why are these absurd and hateful rumors being circulated?”
It matters that I am a woman. It matters that I am a Somali-American woman. It matters that I am a Muslim and immigrant woman. It matters that our campaign won the primary by creating a multicultural coalition between longtime residents, East Africans immigrants and students. This campaign has always been about bringing people together across lines of difference and that’s not going to change.
I know deeply that the people of District 60B oppose Donald Trump-style misogyny, racism, anti-immigration rhetoric and Islamophobic division. We stand together to build a more prosperous and equitable district and state.
Despite the best efforts of those who wish to divide us and stand in the way of progress, rest assured that petty rumors like these will not distract me from the important work that lies ahead for our communities.
Ilhan”
Despite the statement released from the candidate, there are still many unanswered questions regarding Omar’s personal life. And as shown by our timeline of events outlined above, the voters of Senate District 60B deserve truthful answers to these questions.
Subscribe to Alpha News as we bring you the latest news on the Omar campaign.
Preya Samsundar
Preya Samsundar was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities this Spring with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology, with a minor in Strategic Communications. Preya has previously worked on several State Campaign Races.