U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar is going to face continued scrutiny over her tax fillings, marriage status and apparent campaign finance violations—a developing story which could hinder her reelection prospects, according to 830 WCCO News Talk's political analyst Blois Olson.
“I think it could lead to her not running again in the most significant case," Olson said during an appearance Monday on the Chad Hartman show.
Olson, who runs the influential Morning Take newsletter on Minnesota politics, and hosts the Beers with Blois podcast, acknowledged that Omar not running for reelection is currently an unlikely scenario. Still, he called the developing story, "very credible," noting that her office has already acknowledged that she filed joint tax returns with a man she was not married to, while she still legally married to another man.
And, as Olson noted, it’s already become a legal issue: Last week, the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board ruled that Omar violated state campaign finance rules by using campaign money for out-of-state travel while serving as a state representative, and ordered her to reimburse her campaign committee roughly $3,500, and pay a $500 fine.
Olson said that this story, combined with the controversy around Omar’s past statements around Israel, could give voters in Omar's district pause should she run again in 2020.
"I think that a lot of Democrats in the fifth district have been really trying to figure it out. I think this could give them a reason to say, you know what, we can't support this," he said.
Olson said he expects conservative media to continue to focus on the story, and he speculated that Trump might join in via his favorite social media platform in the coming days. He wondered how figures on the other side of the political spectrum would react.
“This is another one of those parallels of is there going to be hypocrisy and a double standard because if the left wants to see Trump's tax returns, then they should want to see Ilhan's tax returns.”
Listen to Olson's full comments on Ilhan Omar below:
