Washington (CNN) Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has been engaged in a highly-personal feud with President Donald Trump, said in a new op-ed that the 2020 presidential election will be "a fight for the soul of our nation," arguing that Trump has "weaponized" the country's democratic institutions.

"The president's rally will be a defining moment in American history. It reminds us of the grave stakes of the coming presidential election: that this fight is not merely about policy ideas; it is a fight for the soul of our nation," Omar wrote in the opinion piece published Thursday in The New York Times.

"Today, that basic promise is under threat. Our democratic institutions have been weaponized," Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, wrote in the op-ed. "And the president has used overtly racist rhetoric to strike fear and division in communities of color and religious minorities across the country."

She continued: "The idea -- explicitly expressed by this president and enshrined into law by executive order -- that people from certain Muslim-majority countries cannot enter this country is not just bad policy; it is a direct threat to liberal democracy."

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