Why I am running against Ilhan Omar: America as we know it will cease to exist

I was a young journalist when I immigrated to the U.S. in 1993.

Growing up in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, the idea that I would one day run for office in America never occurred to me.

But I took my oath of U.S. citizenship seriously, which also meant becoming part of America’s rich cultural fabric and giving back to the country I am lucky to call home.

I moved to Minneapolis from Washington, DC in 2019 and I fell in love with the Twin Cities.

You would be hard-pressed to find more open, friendly, and hopeful people.

And yet, most Minnesotans would tell you that Minneapolis was in decline long before the COVID-19 lockdown and the George Floyd riots that engulfed the city in 2020.