By Sydney Kashiwagi
Star Tribune
(Star Tribune) — U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar was unanimously re-elected deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Thursday.
She’ll help lead the progressive arm of congressional Democrats at a time when it’s likely to play a key role in serving as a resistance to incoming Republican President Donald Trump.
“With Biden, we had an opportunity to push him to implement good policy,” the Minnesota Democrat said in an interview Thursday. “With Trump, our opportunities are going to be to push him not to implement bad policy.”
As Trump is set to have a trifecta in Washington, Omar acknowledges there may be limitations to the caucus’ power.
But she does not think the caucus will be completely powerless, given that Republicans will hold only a slim majority in the House and will need to work with Democrats at times. The caucus has nearly 100 members, mostly in the House.
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Omar said the caucus did not meet with Trump when she served as its whip when he was still in the White House. And though the caucus has not yet discussed whether it will meet with Trump this time, she said if the opportunity to meet him does exist “why not” do it.
“I think we should all be open to doing whatever it takes to make sure that we are able to do the work that causes the least harm and meet and have conversations with anyone that’s willing to meet and have conversations with us,” she said of the prospect of meeting with Trump.
Rep. Greg Cesar, D-Texas, will lead the committee as chair, replacing current chairwoman Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. And Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Ill. was elected to the role of whip, replacing Cesar. Both were also elected unanimously on Thursday.
Omar said she chose to remain as deputy chair due to time constraints. She became deputy chair in 2022 after she had served as the caucus’ whip from 2019.
“It takes a lot of time, and I wanted to make sure that the person who is in the chairship does have the ability to give the caucus the time that it needs, that I don’t have,” she said.
Heading into 2025, Omar said the caucus’ priorities are going to remain the same.
They plan to fight against any regulatory cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and Trump’s proposed tax cuts, and will push to preserve the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the Farm Bill, she said. She also thinks immigration will be the caucus’ next “big fight” and foreign policy will also likely be a key priority for the caucus whether it’s in the Middle East or Ukraine.
“We’re going to have to gear up to defend Democratic norms, to defend those that are most vulnerable, and to obviously defend the progressive values that we have,” she said.
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