Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar has not endorsed a presidential candidate for 2020, but made clear over the weekend that there’s one candidate she doesn’t want to see win the Democratic nomination.
Omar told The Guardian on Saturday that former Vice President Joe Biden is not the candidate “to tackle a lot of the systematic challenges that we have,” and added that she doesn’t believe Biden can excite the party’s base. (RELATED: Ilhan Omar Filed Joint Tax Returns With Man She Wasn’t Married To)
“There are few people who fit into the kind of progress that we all want to see in this country,” Omar said at the Iowa People’s Presidential Forum. “And I would say he is not one of them.”
Omar didn’t name her preferred candidates. (RELATED: Here’s A List Of People The Left Finds Racist)
“I think it has been very clear to many of the people who have been creating the kind of movement that is exciting generations, that we want somebody who really has a plan that is going to tackle a lot of the systematic challenges that we have, and he doesn’t,” she said.
Former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden addresses the crowd at The Galivants Ferry Stump on September 16, 2019 in Galivants Ferry, South Carolina. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Biden was in the Senate for decades before becoming vice president in January 2009, but has been derided as insufficiently progressive by some party activists since entering the presidential race. Still, Biden has maintained the lead in most polling over Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and is widely considered to be the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.