Abena McKenzie
Abena McKenzie (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Minnesota's 5th Congressional District. She lost in the Democratic primary on August 11, 2026.
McKenzie completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Abena McKenzie earned an associate degree from Merritt College in 2011. Her career experience includes working as a nurse.[1]
Elections
2026
See also: Minnesota's 5th Congressional District election, 2026
Minnesota's 5th Congressional District election, 2026 (August 11 Democratic primary)
Minnesota's 5th Congressional District election, 2026 (August 11 Republican primary)
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for U.S. House Minnesota District 5
Incumbent Ilhan Omar (D), John Nagel (R), and DeVelle Jackson (Independent) are running in the general election for U.S. House Minnesota District 5 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Ilhan Omar (D)  | |
 | John Nagel (R) | |
 | DeVelle Jackson (Independent) | |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary
Democratic primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 5
Incumbent Ilhan Omar (D) defeated Julie Le (D), Latonya Reeves (D), Nate Schluter (D), and Abena McKenzie (D) in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 5 on August 11, 2026.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ilhan Omar | 80.7 | 122,640 |
 | Julie Le | 6.7 | 10,201 | |
 | Latonya Reeves | 6.0 | 9,131 | |
 | Nate Schluter | 5.3 | 8,016 | |
 | Abena McKenzie | 1.3 | 1,961 | |
| Total votes: 151,949 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary
Republican primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 5
John Nagel (R) defeated Dalia al-Aqidi (R), Angela Marie Walls-Windhauser (R), and Abbey Zieska (R) in the Republican primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 5 on August 11, 2026.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | John Nagel | 52.2 | 7,777 |
 | Dalia al-Aqidi | 26.2 | 3,902 | |
 | Angela Marie Walls-Windhauser | 15.5 | 2,315 | |
| Abbey Zieska | 6.1 | 915 | ||
| Total votes: 14,909 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2024
See also: Minnesota's 5th Congressional District election, 2024
Minnesota's 5th Congressional District election, 2024 (August 13 Democratic primary)
Minnesota's 5th Congressional District election, 2024 (August 13 Republican primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House Minnesota District 5
Incumbent Ilhan Omar defeated Dalia al-Aqidi in the general election for U.S. House Minnesota District 5 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ilhan Omar (D) | 74.4 | 261,066 |
| Dalia al-Aqidi (R) | 24.6 | 86,213 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.1 | 3,768 | ||
| Total votes: 351,047 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Shujaa Tongrit-Green (Independent)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 5
Incumbent Ilhan Omar defeated Don Samuels, Nate Schluter, and Abena McKenzie in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 5 on August 13, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ilhan Omar | 56.2 | 67,926 |
 | Don Samuels | 42.9 | 51,839 | |
| Nate Schluter | 0.5 | 575 | |
| Abena McKenzie | 0.4 | 461 | |
| Total votes: 120,801 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Tim Peterson (D)
- Sarah Gad (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 5
Dalia al-Aqidi advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 5 on August 13, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Dalia al-Aqidi | 100.0 | 3,380 |
| Total votes: 3,380 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for McKenzie in this election.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Abena McKenzie completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by McKenzie's responses.
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- I would like to assist High-school Apprenticeship programs to assist with Tuttoring in STEM education to Junior, and Middle School. I would love to see communities improve test scores and give kids positive encouragement to reach for goals and achievements.
- We need family and community stability assist programs including family, Marriage, and Parenting counseling. We can assist with grants in this area as well.
- Citizens Civic Duties Upgrade needs to happen. We have a vision to assist with financial assistance for Jury Duty details, for transportation cost, food cost and etc. The real cost of actually being a productive Citizen for Civic Duties must be addressed
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2024
Abena McKenzie did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 20, 2026
