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'We can do this together': 1-on-1 with Rep. Ilhan Omar

Ilhan's firsts will travel to DC with her, alongside her policy goals. Health care for all. Investing in education. And calling for a more welcoming America, for immigrants.

In January, Ilhan Omar will be several firsts when she is sworn in to the U.S. Congress.

The first refugee to do so.

The first woman of color to represent Minnesota in that body.

One of two female Muslims ever to take that oath in Washington, D.C.

Ilhan Omar's ascent into politics isn't the story you see in the hundreds of interviews she has done all over the world.

What you see is her place in it now, one she has only held for two years.

But one that has been constantly under the spotlight from day one.

“A little, like, unknown secret is that I don't enjoy doing interviews,” Ilhan said quietly and she and I sat down on Wednesday afternoon

I asked her what it felt like to be so many "firsts."

“It feels great but honestly, I think it feels overwhelming,” Omar said.

“I think often we put so much emphasis on the first and we don't acknowledge the reasons behind the run … we don't acknowledge the other qualifications that the person carries,” Omar went on to say.

Ilhan's firsts will travel to DC with her, alongside her policy goals.

Health care for all.

Investing in education.

And calling for a more welcoming America, for immigrants.

“It is important when you're an immigrant and you are living in a country that currently doesn't recognize your full humanity to have someone who says, 'We are OK, we're here, and I think we can do this together,'” Omar said of her lived experience as an immigrant.

Ilhan is only one of so many firsts who will make up the next congressional class.

A class that is also the first to have 113 seats filled by women.

And she does have just one reservation about life in Washington, D.C.

I asked her what she was least excited about.

“Traffic,” she said.

“The conversations I’ve had with everyone is you have to live within certain miles of the Capitol, so it seems like a place where all are worried about how to get somewhere. I can deal with everything else. I mean, I survived a war, so I can handle a lot of stuff.”

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