Ilhan Omar Echoes AOC Call for Sanders and Warren Supporters to #BuildTogether, Urges Progressives to Unite Like Moderates

Rep. Ilhan Omar has echoed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's call for progressive Democrats to unite in support of Sen. Bernie Sanders in the same way moderates had for former Vice President Joe Biden.

Omar, a representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district, had joined Sanders at a rally in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Monday night in a bid to help him secure victory in the state's primary contest.

But after Sen. Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden, Omar's home state went to for vice president who secured more than 38 percent of the vote. Sanders came second with around 30 percent of the vote, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren with around 15 percent.

Sanders had won the state by a considerable margin in 2016. But this year, Omar's endorsement did not seal the victory in her congressional district, which includes Minneapolis, for Sanders.

As the results came in, Omar took to Twitter and appeared to urge Warren to drop out of the race, saying Sanders would have claimed more victories, including in Minnesota, on Super Tuesday if progressive Democrats had thrown their support behind him.

"Imagine if the progressives consolidated last night like the moderates consolidated, who would have won?" Omar wrote. "That's what we should be analyzing. I feel confident a united progressive movement would have allowed for us to #BuildTogether and win MN and other states we narrowly lost."

It came after Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, also urged for progressive Democrats to unite in a bid to win the Democratic presidential nomination.

"I'm a Bernie supporter who builds with Warren supporters. It's how we got a top-to-bottom progressive ballot sweep in NY14," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Tuesday.

Their sentiment appears to be backed by Sanders' supporters as the hashtag #WarrenEndorseBernie was trending on Twitter across the United States on Monday afternoon.

In his victory speech in Los Angeles, Biden thanked Klobuchar for her endorsement and credited that for his win in Minnesota.

As well as Minnesota, Biden also scored victories in eight other states on Super Tuesday, including Texas, Massachusetts, and Virginia reviving his presidential campaign and throwing him back into contention for the nomination—days after Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg abruptly dropped out of the race and endorsed him.

Former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke, another moderate Democrat who had earlier dropped out of the race for the party's nomination, also endorsed Biden on Monday.

Sanders had gone into Super Tuesday as the undisputed frontrunner but ended up with fewer victories than Biden. He won in California, the night's biggest prize, as well as his home state of Vermont along with Utah and Colorado.

Meanwhile, Warren appeared determined to remain in the contest despite a poor showing on Super Tuesday that included a third place finish in her home state of Massachusetts, the Associated Press reported.

In terms of delegates, she is in a distant third place behind Biden and Sanders and appears set to take her campaign all the way to a contested convention in July.

"Here's my advice: Cast a vote that will make you proud. Cast a vote from your heart," Warren told supporters in Michigan before her disappointing finish in Massachusetts was announced.

She added, "You don't get what you don't fight for. I am in this fight."

The other candidate left in the narrowing Democratic field, billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, scored only one victory—in American Samoa—despite plowing more than $500 million into his campaign ahead of Super Tuesday.

Ilhan Omar
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) (R) introduces Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) during a campaign rally at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium March 02, 2020 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Correction 03/04/20, 9.15 a.m. ET: The headline on this article has been corrected to add the word "like," which was cut in error before publishing.

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Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on abortion rights, race, education, ... Read more

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