MINNEAPOLIS-If she suspected someone was going to start a fight with her as a child, Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota sometimes struck first. As a tiny girl, she figured the element of surprise was an advantage.

That willingness to go on the offensive has been a hallmark of her political career. When a man sprayed Omar with apple-cider vinegar from a syringe at a town-hall meeting here earlier this year, her first instinct wasn't to cower, but to chase him with raised fists. In an interview, Omar said it isn't in her nature to back down.

The lawmaker has been a forerunner for a faction of Democrats pulling the party leftward. That, along with her combativeness, has helped make her a top target for attacks from President Trump and conservatives, as well as GOP investigations. A massive welfare-fraud scandal in Minnesota-heavily tied to her fellow Somali immigrants-has only added fuel to the fire.

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told a conservative podcaster earlier this month that there was a continuing federal investigation into Omar, who he said "married her brother to try to bring him into the United States." It is a claim she has denied for more than a decade.

She will soon have more far-left company in the House, given an incoming class that includes more progressives and even socialists after primaries picked them from safely blue districts like hers. Those incoming freshmen often share her relish for a fight and hold policy positions outside the mainstream, sometimes causing party leaders headaches.

Among those Omar campaigned for in this year's midterm campaign were Francesca Hong, a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America who nearly won the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin governor, and Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive U.S. Senate nominee in Michigan.

Republicans are also using Omar on the campaign trail: Numerous speakers at the recent GOP convention in Dallas held her up as an example of how radical Democrats have become.

Omar doesn't have a formal leadership role in her party, but maintains a high profile and is often sought as a campaign surrogate. Winning statewide office would be challenging for her and there are constitutional requirements for presidents to be natural-born citizens, but that doesn't diminish her own views of her legacy.

"I'm inked into this nation's history," she said in the interview. "If I, you know, pass away tomorrow, there will be history books that mention Congresswoman Omar was here."

In Minnesota's 5th District, where former Vice President Kamala Harris won roughly 80% of the 2024 vote, Omar has little need for bipartisanship. Her perch offers a place where she can pursue progressive goals like Medicare for all and yell at Trump during the State of the Union speech with no consequences.

"She was among the first signals that the more socialist-aligned Democrats were gaining a stronghold in Minneapolis and beyond," said Blois Olson, who publishes a newsletter on Minnesota politics and has followed Omar's career from the start.

Omar's ties to Minnesota brought complications this year amid a fraud scandal where most of roughly 100 people charged so far are Somalis. As the only Somali in Congress, Omar has been dragged into the fallout from the swindling.

The fraud has also given Trump and Republicans a potent example of Democratic mismanagement to campaign against. Total losses are still unknown, but have been estimated between $300 million and billions.

Omar, 43 years old, condemns the theft. When asked why so many Somalis were involved, she noted those charged represent only a fraction of the state's more than 100,000-member community and dismissed suggestions they should have done more to police themselves.

"What you are insinuating is that people are walking around trying to figure out what other people are doing with their lives," she said. "You would hope that people go about their own business, and let others go about their own."

She hesitated when asked if the state government failed its oversight role before offering a brief "sure" with no additional elaboration.

Trump's perfect foil

Omar's arrival in Congress in January 2019 was an early harbinger of the party's current fight between traditional Democrats and an insurgent far-left seeking to move the party closer to socialism.

In Omar's district office, inside a building once home to the musician Prince's middle school, there is a painting that includes three of the four original members of what is known as the Squad. The progressive congresswomen of color were elected in 2018 and are known for challenging Democratic leadership and being vocal Trump critics.

The group, which also includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, would have more power if Democrats win House control. Ocasio-Cortez, who has tempered her rhetoric in recent months, is often mentioned as a Senate or even 2028 presidential candidate.

For Trump-who shares some of Omar's political instincts-she is the perfect foil. He uses her to rally the GOP's anti-immigration and anti-Muslim wings, mentioning her at least 20 times in social-media posts this year and often bringing her up in cabinet meetings and appearances.

She and Trump were first elected on the same night in November 2016-Omar to the Minnesota legislature and Trump to the presidency-and their mutual disdain has been inextricably linked since.

Two days before that election, Trump held an airport tarmac rally in Minnesota, targeting the state's Somali community and claiming residents had "suffered enough" from their presence. The fraud in Minnesota has only amplified his Somali criticisms.

During this year's State of the Union speech, Trump called Somalis "pirates" who have "ransacked Minnesota" by stealing billions in taxpayer money in the fraud scandal.

While Democratic leaders urged "silent defiance," Omar shouted he was a liar. "He was personally insulting me," she said in the interview.

Omar and Trump represent opposing bookends in a national politics that has become increasingly personal and sometimes violent. But she challenged any comparisons to him when asked if the two might have some things in common when it comes to politics. "I don't think I've ever incited violence against anyone," she said.

Omar, who routinely receives death threats and sometimes has to hire her own private security for her monthly town-hall meetings and other events, attributes the hostility directed at her to what she calls a "self-esteem" problem among "right-wing" conservatives.

"They detest any success of immigrants, of women, of minorities that is celebrated," she said. "My victory in 2016, in winning the statehouse race, catapulted me to national spotlight and garnered national and international headlines. I think it created a bitter spot for them and they've never been able to let it go."

Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1982 into an affluent family, Omar lost her mother when she was in preschool, according to her book, "This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey From Refugee to Congresswoman." As a self-described spoiled youngest child, she was raised by her father and a collection of family members.

As a child, she enjoyed a level of safety and comfort unusual in a country with widespread poverty and violence. The family had a Toyota Corolla, personal driver and guarded compound.

When she was eight, civil war broke out. After surviving a direct attack on their home, her family fled to Kenya and lived in a refugee camp for several years. Omar writes they secured "a golden ticket" to America, but her first impressions weren't positive when she landed in New York and saw piles of garbage and homelessness.

After initially settling in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., her family moved to Minnesota as she entered high school. Following graduation, Omar married at the age of 18 and began taking classes in a two-year degree program that met at the Mall of America.

Shortly after starting classes, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, happened. Amid the anti-Muslim sentiment that followed, Omar started wearing a hijab in the U.S. for the first time to show her solidarity with her fellow Muslims.

She graduated from North Dakota State University in 2011, near the age of 30, and began working in school nutrition outreach, volunteering for political campaigns and eventually landing a job in Minneapolis City Hall.

Omar said she is still paying off her own student loans after helping put her three children through college. When asked whether she thinks student debt should be wiped away for everyone, she said, "of course I do."

A longtime critic of Israel, Omar argues it shouldn't receive "a single penny" of U.S. aid because of "genocide" in Gaza. She refutes accusations of antisemitism made against her over the years, claiming a controversial 2019 "all about the Benjamins" tweet was a "generational misunderstanding" referencing a rap song, not an antisemitic trope.

Omar's complex marital history has long been part of her political narrative. Within days of her August 2016 primary victory, she divulged details about her relationships after questions were raised about whether she was married to two men at the same time. An Associated Press fact-check in 2019 citing public records said she wasn't, divorcing one in 2017 and marrying another in 2018.

In the interview, she denied the allegation, saying, "How could I be married to two people at the same time?"

Her current husband, Tim Mynett, is a former political consultant who once was on her campaign's payroll. In recent years, he has been involved in several businesses, including a venture-capital management firm in Washington, D.C., and a winery in Santa Rosa, Calif. A nonpartisan entity charged with reviewing congressional misconduct allegations recently cleared Omar of wrongdoing in connection with disclosure documents she submitted that significantly overstated her household's assets.

Mynett's ex-wife, a doctor who lives in Washington, D.C., said in her 2019 divorce filing that her then-husband left her for Omar following an affair he had with the congresswoman.

Mullin said federal officials are investigating her past marriage as well as how her family immigrated to the U.S. In the interview, Omar said she was never married to her brother and never committed immigration fraud.

"They are obsessed with insinuating something that is disgusting," she said. "People have complicated lives. I'm not giving marriage advice."