Rep. Omar Trolls 'Rightwing Crazies' Pushing Somali Flag Conspiracy

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota's State Emblems Redesign Commission on Tuesday formally adopted a new state flag, replacing the original one that historians considered racist and vexillologists considered boring.

The chosen design includes the "conceptual" shape of Minnesota in dark blue and the rest of the flag in light blue. The flag also has a single eight-pointed star pointed north on the shape of Minnesota:

But one of the final flag designs that ultimately wasn't selected ended up going viral due to a right-wing conspiracy theory involving Rep. Ilhan Omar and the Somali national flag.

The theory claimed that Minnesota's new flag resembled the Somali national flag because the state had been "conquered" by Omar and Somali refugees.

But posts from "End Wokeness" and other right-wing accounts shared images of a proposed flag design that was not ultimately chosen as the new state flag.

On Tuesday, End Wokeness began spreading a claim that the Emblem Commission made "last-minute changes" to the new state flag "following intense backlash against the original redesign."

In fact, the "original design" the account referenced was never selected to be the final version of the flag.