A Minnesota police officer and U.S. Army veteran was so offended by the dismissive comments made by current Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, that he decided to challenge her for her congressional seat in the 2020 election. The inspired officer announced his candidacy for Congress in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District due to her flippant comments, and his intent to remove Omar from office and represent the district himself.
Chris Kelley, a 20‐year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Force and 27‐year veteran of the United States Army and Army Reserves, has served in Operation Desert Storm, was deployed twice during the Iraq War, and will now run as an independent to take on Omar after the freshman lawmaker, who was born in Somalia, flippantly said “some people did something” when referring to the 9/11 attackers.
Kelley announced his candidacy for Congress in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, and indicated it was a direct result of Omar’s comments about 9/11, saying that the comments were “very dismissive and disrespectful.”
“Look, three-thousand Americans died and many more first responders died [after] responding to this. … I figured you can complain or you can try and do something,” he said.
Kelley said that his district is a heavily-Democratic area, but he believes there are many “disaffected” voters who can be persuaded against supporting Omar. He also indicated that Omar seems to be more interested in her own “celebrity” and being in the limelight rather than actually helping the people of her district.
“She’s campaigning everywhere else, raising money in California, now she’s overseas, but she’s not in the district and people are noticing. Many people have said to me, ‘what is she doing for us?'” Kelley said.
Omar’s social media account shows a photo with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi posted Thursday from their trip to Ghana, where they were traveling as part of a larger congressional delegation, along with a rude comment directed at President Trump.
“They said ‘send her back’ but Speaker @SpeakerPelosi didn’t just make arrangements to send me back, she went back with me,” Omar posted, referring to a North Carolina Trump rally where the crowd chanted “send her back” after the president criticized the congresswoman.
Kelley said that there was so much to do in Minnesota, and that the citizens in the district deserve their representative’s full attention, which they are definitely not getting at the moment. If elected to Congress, he intends to give his district his full attention, and plans to work hard on the existing, serious issues of “drug use, homelessness and terrorism recruitment” within the Minnesota district. These issues will be Kelley’s main concern if elected to Congress, and he intends to be a very hands-on representative who listens to and works for the people in his district.
