Ilhan Omar’s GOP challenger has 'poured thousands' of campaign dollars into her husband’s company: report

14 October 2022

If Republicans are able to flip five Democrat-held seats in the U.S. House of Representatives while keeping the seats they are defending, they will obtain a House majority in the 2022 midterms. But most or all members of The Squad — an alliance of progressive female Democrats in the House — are likely safe, as they are based in liberal, very Democrat-friend districts. In Minnesota, Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Squad member, is being challenged by Republican Cicely Davis, whose husband, Bradley Ross Ireland, has been helping her campaign.

In an article published by the Daily Beast on October 14, journalist William Bredderman reports that Davis has “poured tens of thousands of dollars from her no-chance but well-funded campaign into a company belonging to her husband.”

Bredderman reports, “Bradley Ross Ireland, who has run a string of troubled Minnesota bars, said he has served as the campaign’s primary graphic designer — a role that nets him $100 to $200 per hour, depending on the exact task he performs…. The most recent disclosures Davis has made with the Federal Election Commission show her congressional bid has paid at least $35,475 for ‘campaign consulting’ to a company called ‘BR, Inc.’ with an address at a condominium unit in the Elliot Park neighborhood of Minneapolis.”

Ireland told the Daily Beast that he is the company’s only employee, saying, “We’ve been doing everything from branding of her campaign, marketing, design of flyers, design of builders, design of literally everything.”

Ireland, according to Bredderman, “conceded that he had no history of working for political campaigns, but maintained he has three decades of relevant experience in marketing and design.”

“Campaign finance law does not forbid candidates from compensating themselves or family members for services, so long as all payments are market rate,” Bredderman notes. “The wages Ireland reported garnering from the campaign vastly outstrip the average hourly earnings of graphic designers, which — according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics — rarely break $40 an hour even in costliest parts of the country. However, experts said that professional political vendors do often receive a comparable amount.”

Jordan Libowitz, communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told the Beast, “It’s not out of the ordinary for political design firms to be charging that much. Whether his work calls for that rate is another question.”

Bredderman points out that Davis’ decision to use her husband for her campaign is “ironic” in light of “conservative online outrage over Omar’s own payments to the consulting firm of her now-husband, Tim Mynett,” adding that Davis’ former campaign manager, Matthew R.J. Brodsky “once raged on social media about Omar’s interfamilial spending habits.”

On February 27, 2021, Brodsky tweeted, “Rep. Omar campaign payments accounted for 80% of husband's firm's cash input (Because she knows there are no consequences).”

Omar was first elected to the U.S. House in 2018 as part of that year’s blue wave, and she was reelected in 2020. The name The Squad has often been used to describe the progressive alliance that also includes Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York City, Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

A practicing Muslim with non-fundamentalist views, Omar has been a frequent target of anti-Islam smears from the far right. If Omar defeats Davis in November, she will begin her third term in January 2023.

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