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An admirer of Ilhan Omar is running in the 9th District
Jan Schakowsky’s announcement to retire at the end of her term representing Illinois' 9th congressional district has set off a stampede of Democrats hoping to replace her. Even two Republicans have announced their bids for the seat.
The contorted and gerrymandered 9th district covers three Chicago wards, the 48th, the 49th, and the 50th, as well as a part of the 47th ward. From there it slithers up to Crystal Lake in McHenry County. It was drawn by Democrats to elect a Democrat.
The 9th has long been the unofficial Jewish seat among the Illinois congressional delegation. With the exception of the 88th Congress (1963-65), since 1949 a Jewish Democrat has represented the 9th district. Schakowsky was first elected to that seat in 1998. While the Jewish population in the 9th is now relatively small, the Chicago portion has many Jewish residents — as do Evanston, Lincolnwood, and Skokie.
As of Monday, there are an astounding 12 Democrats running to succeed Schakowsky. Among the better-known names are Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, and three members of the General Assembly, State Senators Laura Fine (17) and Mike Simmons (7), and State Representative Hoan Huynh (13).
With so many candidates, it's conceivable that a Democrat collecting a mere 20 percent of the vote in next March's primary could win the party's nomination and then be considered the heavy favorite to win the general election.
In May, Contrarian profiled social media influencer and yes, social contagion, Kat Abughazaleh, a native Texan who just moved to Chicago — but not into the 9th district — from Washington, D.C. last year. Abughazaleh seems to be positioning herself as another Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The congresswoman from the Bronx is the best-known member of The Squad, a small group of U.S. House leftists with anti-Semitic leanings. Another member of The Squad is Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. One of her gushing supporters is Bushra Amiwala, a 27-year-old member of the board of education for Skokie School District 73.5 — she's a year older than Abughazaleh.
A fan girl
When Amiwala met Omar in 2022, she commented on X and Instagram: “It’s hard to not fan girl every time.” In 2021, “Total dream come true” is how Amiwala, in another fan girl thrill, expressed her delight when she learned Omar was following her on that platform.
However, two years after Amiwala’s first fawning social media post about the congresswoman, Omar found herself in trouble for two posts Twitter that were widely viewed as anti-Semitic.
Omar is an immigrant from Somalia, Amiwala is the daughter of Pakistani immigrants.
Last year, Omar, during a visit to a pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University, alluded some Jewish students enrolled at the Ivy League school were pro-genocide.
As with most leftist politicians, Amiwala has her origin story.
The Skokie resident, who spent her early childhood in Rogers Park, certainly has a unique background. In 2018, when she was 19 and a college student at DePaul, she ran for a seat on the Cook County Board of Comssioners against Larry Suffredin. She lost, but Suffredin, who has since retired from public office, encouraged her run for a different office. Amiwala chose the board of education in Skokie. She won her seat in 2019 and remains there today.
Since then, Amiwala has been a regular on the you-are-just-so-wonderful podcast circuit, granting an occasional interview with a mainstream media outlet, where she receives a similarly cloying reception. Visiting her X page, you'll learn that Amiwala was “@Glamour College Woman of the Year” and that she was on the “Cover of @TIME.” She is frequently introduced on those loving podcasts with those accolades, but Amiwala offers no corrections. She should do so, because Amiwala was one of 10 college women of the year in 2018 for Glamour. Regarding that Time cover, she was one of 48 women, dubbed “The Avengers,” pictured on that front cover.
Indeed, both are significant achievements, but both claims are exaggerations.
In the accompanying Time “Avengers” story by Charlotte Alter, Amiwala isn’t mentioned, except when the photograph credits were given.
According to her website, Amiwala holds predictable leftist views on major issues. She supports “comprehensive immigration reform,” “Medicare for All,” an “immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” and of course, the “Green New Deal.”
Besides podcasts, Amiwala is available on the public speaking circuit. She can be hired though AAE Speakers from anywhere from $20,000 to $30,000 to utter her pleasantries.
Amiwala is also an account manager for Google.
“You're the first Muslim person I've ever met”
Like so many left-wing politicians looking to grow their base in Chicago and the suburbs, Amiwala chose the Ben Joravsky Show podcast to introduce herself to voters. The former Chicago Reader reporter was an accommodating host during his cooing interview. Even though Amiwala was a Democrat, in 2016 she worked as a paid intern for U.S. Senator Mark Kirk, a Republican who was running for reelection that year. Her job was to go door to door in north suburban Glenview — while wearing her hijab — to canvass voters and ask them a series of questions.
Recalling her experience canvassing, Amiwala lamented the first question on the list was: "On a scale of one to 10, how fearsome are you of an Islamic terror attack on U.S. soil?”
“The discomfort was in receiving the response, which uniquely across the board, was 10, ‘Very fearsome,’" she added.
And finally — remember, Amiwala was canvassing voters in Glenview, a diverse suburb that borders her hometown of Skokie, not some remote downstate village — she handed Joravsky the unintentional punchline:
“And they would say, well, you're the first Muslim person I've ever met.”
It's unlikely this part of her story is true, particularly the bit about Amiwala having been the first Muslim these Glenview residents had met. But discrimination, either direct or implied, is a potent empowerment tool for the left. And it's crucial for their all-important origin story. And she has told her Kirk tale at least a dozen times on the podcast circuit, even using the word “fearsome” every time, when “fearful” is a better grammatical match.
Illinois’ first Squad member?
After Brandon Johnson was elected mayor of Chicago and after Zohran Mamdani's win in last month’s New York City Democratic mayoral primary, a collective “How did on earth this happen?” was screamed by center-right citizens.
It's quite easy to understand how.
Both left-wingers prevailed in low-turnout elections. Secondly, Johnson, as a Cook County commissioner, and Mamdani, as a New York state assemblyman, achieved next to nothing in the offices they held before becoming mayor and Democratic niominee for mayor. And because they did little, they had no failures to answer for. But with their patina of credibility as elected officials, enough voters fell for Johnson and Mamdani’s hokum to prevail.
Here's the lesson for moderate and conservative voters: The moment to prevent future Brandons and Mamdanis is when they are nobodies, by educating the rest of the electorate about their records — even though their résumés may be wafer thin. And tell others what their extreme positions on the issues are.
The most effective way to have a dandelion-free lawn is to dig out the first one that you find.
Even after six years of being a loudmouth cipher in Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is being taken seriously as a presidential candidate. She could have been stopped much earlier.
Chicago Magazine says that if elected, Amiwala would request to join The Squad,
Voters in Illinois’ 9th congressional district who want to prevent a “fan girl” of Squad member Ilhan Omar from representing them in the U.S. House — and then using that position to springboard to an even higher office — need to get to work now.
Welcome to the big leagues, Bushra.
Featured image: TEDxDePaulUniversity 2019 by TEDx DePaulUniversity, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
