A prominent figure within Minnesota's Somali community has publicly asserted that Representative Ilhan Omar did, in fact, wed her brother, Ahmed Elmi.
The community leader, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that the marriage was a strategic move to secure necessary documentation for Elmi's education. The Post Millennial reports that the marriage to Elmi, Omar's second husband, was officiated by a Christian pastor, a departure from Somali tradition which only recognizes the legitimacy of her first marriage conducted in a mosque.
Abdihakim Osman, a close associate of Omar and the author of a Facebook blog that discusses Somali affairs, revealed to the Daily Mail, "No one knew there had been a wedding until the media turned up the marriage certificate years later." Omar's first marriage to Hirsi, conducted in a Muslim ceremony in 2002, was not officially registered with the state.
The couple had their first child, Isra, in 2003, followed by a second child. Osman disclosed that Elmi surfaced in Minneapolis in the late 2000s.
"People began noticing that Ilhan and Southside (Hirsi) were often with a very effeminate young guy," Osman shared. "He was very feminine in the way he dressed he would wear light lipstick and pink clothes and very, very, short shorts in the summer. People started whispering about him. [Hirsi] and Ilhan both told me it was Ilhan's brother and he had been living in London but he was mixing with what were seen as bad influences that the family did not like. So they sent him to Minneapolis as 'rehab.'"
Osman further detailed the stark contrast between Omar's two weddings. "When [Hirsi] and Ilhan got married, a lot of people were invited. It was a big Islamic wedding uniting two large clans in the Minneapolis community. I would say there were 100-150 people there," he said. However, when it came to her marriage to Elmi, it was a hushed affair, with no one in the community even aware of it.
According to a wedding license, Omar and Elmi tied the knot on February 12, 2009, at a Hennepin County office located outside of Minneapolis. The couple resided in Columbia Heights before relocating to Fargo, ND, where they both attended North Dakota State. Their marriage was officiated by Christian minister Wilecia Harris.
Despite Omar's claim that she and Hirsi separated in 2008, Osman insists that the couple continued to live as husband and wife. "She said she needed to get papers for her brother to go to school. We all thought she was just getting papers together to allow him to stay in this country. Once she had the papers they could apply for student loans. They both moved to North Dakota to go to school but she was still married to [Hirsi]. In the Somali way, the only marriage that mattered was the one in the mosque."
Osman also noted that while Omar frequently returned to Minneapolis to visit her family, Elmi rarely accompanied her. He suspects that Omar and Elmi chose to marry outside the Somali community to avoid the scrutiny of an imam who would have likely denied their marriage due to their familial ties.
Omar and Elmi officially divorced in 2017, after which Omar remarried Hirsi in a civil ceremony in 2018. However, Osman maintains that this was not a legitimate marriage, asserting that Omar and Hirsi "never parted."
In November 2025, Hirsi and Omar divorced following allegations of Omar's affair with Tim Mynett, her chief fundraiser and a married father. Hirsi subsequently married pediatric nurse Ladan Ahmed just 37 days after his divorce from Omar. Mynett and his wife divorced in December, and Omar subsequently married Mynett.
Osman, who migrated to the US in 2004, shared that he became well-acquainted with Hirsi during his early years in Minneapolis. Their friendship, which began when Hirsi was working in a barber shop, included regular meals at a local restaurant and occasional assistance with Hirsi's now-defunct hookah business.
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