Rep. Kahn to face 2 challengers in August primary

Phyllis Kahn, Ilhan Omar and Mohamud Noor
Incumbent Phyllis Kahn, Ilhan Omar and Mohamud Noor answer questions during the DFL nominating convention Saturday night in Minneapolis.
Peter Cox | MPR News

The DFL's District 60B House race in Minneapolis will go to a primary in August.

This time, with three candidates.

After a day-long nominating process on Saturday none of three candidates were able to get support from 60 percent of the delegates in order to garner the party's endorsement.

Long-time officer holder Phyllis Kahn and Mohamud Noor, who faced off with Kahn in a primary two years ago, battled for votes with first-time candidate Ilhan Omar at the DFL nominating convention at Northwest Middle School in Minneapolis.

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On the first ballot, the newcomer, Omar, took in almost 55 percent of the delegates, to Kahn's nearly 35 percent and Noor's 11 percent.

After two ballots, Noor didn't have enough delegates to continue. But most of his delegates chose not to endorse either of the two remaining candidates in the next three rounds.

The endorsement process lasted about six hours.

Omar said she believed Noor and Kahn should've told their delegates to support her after the first couple of ballots since she was just a few percentage points from victory.

"As a person who is invested in growing this party and whose invested in gaining the majority in the House, that's what I would've done," she said. "For us to now have a primary that is three-way that is going to drain resources of people of our party, it's really sad."

Omar and Noor are Somali-American. If either candidate wins the primary and the November election, they would be the first Somali representative in the state house.

Kahn is a long-time progressive in the house, serving since 1972. On Friday, she said she would not run in a primary if any of her opponents won the DFL endorsement.

Among the people who introduced Omar were two University of MInnesota students

Kahn said she felt the convention Saturday wasn't totally representative of District 60B and had a very high number of university and college students.

"Last election they had almost no turnout. What happened was kind of a Bernie tsunami that worked on it. I'm very pleased with it. I hope people stay involved. I hope they get involved to have a little bit more understanding of the process, understanding enough to vote for me," Kahn said, laughing.

After the balloting, some of Omar's supporters said they believed her opponents wanted the August primary in order to have fewer student voters. Omar said she understands their concerns and hopes their voices will be heard. But she believes she has broad support.

"I think with the kind of organizing that we've been able to do, and we are capable of doing and the kind of coalitions that we can build. I'm pretty confident," Omar said. "And that we mobilize and energize other residents of the district to partake and truly make this the time for change."

The Secretary of State has scheduled primary election day on Aug. 9.