WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  • Several Democrat candidates entered the final midterm campaign week facing criminal investigations, allegations, or questions about past associations.
  • Rep. Ilhan Omar remains under federal investigation concerning immigration documents, although she has not been charged.
  • Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed denied ties to the Muslim Brotherhood as past family posts and reported associations drew scrutiny.
  • Republicans Ken Paxton and Max Miller are also carrying political baggage into crucial contests.

With only days remaining before the midterms, several Democrat candidates are ending their campaigns beneath legal clouds and mounting scrutiny. The controversies range from a criminal immigration investigation to questions about past associations and alleged misconduct, as reported by Just The News.

President Donald Trump has directed particular attention toward Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Both entered the final campaign stretch facing serious questions that have complicated the Democrats’ closing message.

Trump last week called for Omar to resign amid allegations that she previously lied about her identity in a manner that could compromise her naturalization as a U.S. citizen. Omar has not been charged, but she is under criminal investigation by the Trump Department of Justice.

Federal agents searched Omar’s Washington home on Oct. 12 and seized her phone, according to the Associated Press. A Minnesota grand jury also issued more than a dozen subpoenas, including subpoenas directed to relatives.

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The investigation reportedly focuses on whether Omar or her late father lied on immigration documents filed decades ago. One of Omar’s political opponents first raised allegations in 2019 that she had misrepresented her birthdate to obtain U.S. citizenship.

Omar said in 2018 that she became a citizen through her father’s naturalization under a process known as derivative citizenship. “I became a citizen actually before I turned 18. My father became a citizen, and so I got my citizenship through that process,” she told The Intercept during that year’s election.

Opponents allege Omar could have been too old to qualify for derivative citizenship. The Minnesota Legislative Reference Library once listed her birthdate as Oct. 4, 1981, which would have made her 18 or 19 when she said she obtained citizenship through her father in 2000.

Only minors can claim citizenship through naturalized parents, while Omar has maintained that she was 17 when she became a citizen. Several months after she was elected, the library changed her birth year at the request of Omar’s staffers.

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Omar has attacked the investigation as an attempt to “weaponize federal law enforcement.” Trump, meanwhile, alleged on Truth Social that Omar had used a different name and linked that name to Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, whom Trump described as her brother.

In Michigan, El-Sayed is facing scrutiny involving the Muslim Brotherhood. The Washington Free Beacon reported that he signed a 2012 open letter urging the organization to “purge the media and police,” and that his donors include a former spokesman for the Brotherhood’s Egyptian political party.

Past X posts from El-Sayed’s half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, also highlighted family connections to the organization, particularly its Egyptian chapter. The U.S. Treasury Department designated that chapter a specially designated global terrorist organization for providing material support to Hamas.

In June 2012, Abdelhadi wrote, “Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college #respect.” Abdelhadi is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago.

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El-Sayed and Abdelhadi share the same mother, Fatten Elkomy, who attended Alexandria University in Egypt, a location of Muslim Brotherhood activity during the 1970s. El-Sayed has denied having any connection to the organization.

When pressed by “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas, El-Sayed said, “I have no ties. We have no ties,” according to the New York Post. He also told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that his family had no ties to the organization.

Two Democrats previously viewed as campaign liabilities are no longer on the ballot. Graham Platner left Maine’s Senate race in July after a sexual assault allegation that he denies, while Eric Swalwell resigned from Congress and abandoned California’s governor’s race amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

Republicans are dealing with baggage of their own. Texas Senate nominee Ken Paxton faced felony securities fraud charges that were dismissed after he paid restitution and completed community service, while Ohio Rep. Max Miller remains in a dead heat amid a public divorce and custody fight.

Miller’s former wife, Emily Moreno, is the daughter of Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, who called Miller “a danger to my daughter” and demanded his resignation. Trump carried Miller’s district by 11 points in 2024, making the contest particularly important to the GOP’s effort to maintain its legislative majority.