President Donald Trump on Tuesday predicted that freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar would give him the edge to win Minnesota in 2020, writing that the polarizing Democrat combined with his economic record will provide the bump he needs.
"In 2016 I almost won Minnesota. In 2020, because of America hating anti-Semite Rep.
Omar, & the fact that Minnesota is having its best economic year ever, I will win the State!" he said on Twitter.Trump has repeatedly pledged to win the Midwestern state, which hasn’t voted to put a Republican in the White House since 1972, after losing it narrowly to Hillary Clinton in 2016. The GOP is staffing up in the state at Trump’s request, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported earlier this month, as part of a broader plan to put traditionally blue states in play next year.
Trump's argument that Omar will help him expand his electoral map is indicative of Republicans' strategy of painting Democrats as too radically left-wing for the country in hopes of helping the party maintain control of the White House and Senate next year and winning back the House.
A CBS News/YouGov poll conducted last week found that while Omar has net unfavorability ratings among Americans who know her, she’s popular among Democrats and especially liberal Democrats who know her. The same poll found that a majority of Americans disapproved of Trump’s Twitter attacks on Omar and three other minority congresswomen in which he said that they should “go back” to the countries from which they came (despite all but Omar having been born in the United States).
Following Trump’s invectives, and his singling her out at a campaign rally days later, Omar was greeted by a crowd of more than 100 people at her hometown airport last week. Through a megaphone, she told the supportive crowd that "We are going to continue to be a nightmare to this president because his policies are a nightmare to us.”
But the president contended Tuesday it was the other way around, writing that “AOC Plus 3 are a Nightmare for America!” referring to Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine