TLAIB LINES UP HISTORIC ROLE IN US CONGRESS
▶ Anti-Trump candidate would be first Muslim woman once elected
Rashida Tlaib has been making waves throughout her political career.
In 2008, she became the first Muslim woman to serve in Michigan’s state legislature.
In 2013, she exposed a major sexual harassment case at an Arab-American organisation.
In 2016, she was arrested after disrupting a Donald Trump rally and yesterday, she defied polls and the political establishment to win the Democratic primary for Michigan’s District 13.
Ms Tlaib, 42, was projected to win the crowded Democratic race to replace John Conyers in Michigan, pulling ahead with 33.2 per cent of the vote.
She will now run unopposed in November to become the first Muslim and Arab American woman in Congress.
“You don’t have to change who you are to run for office, and that is what this country is about,” Ms Tlaib told supporters yesterday. “I want people across the country to know that you don’t need to sell out.”
In the era of right-wing conservatism, she ran on a leftist, grassroots-driven platform focused on a pro-immigration and anti-discriminatory message.
But while Ms Tlaib’s victory is being framed around her Palestinian and Muslim identity, people familiar with her journey see it very differently.
Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, who has known Ms Tlaib since the 1990s, told The National her win was about much more than identity politics. Rather, it was her vigorous door-to-door campaign that ultimately gave her the lead by 3,462 votes.
“It’s her field operation, her hard work and commitment to public service … no one does constituent services like Rashida does,” said Ms Berry, citing her work in the state legislature between 2009 and 2014 serving a largely Latino community.
“Foreign policy had nothing to do with it,” she said.
Still, her win as a daughter of Palestinian-American parents who immigrated from Beit Hanina and Beit Ur Al Fauqa is the “icing on the cake ... and is inspiring in 2018”, she said.
Rebecca Abou Chedid, an Arab-American advocate and a fellow with the Truman National Security Project, said “there was always going to be a ‘first’ Muslim woman elected to Congress but the fact that it is Rashida Tlaib is particularly meaningful for Arab and Muslim Americans”. Ms Abou Chedid, who also worked with Ms Tlaib, said: “Rashida is a proud Palestinian who will continue to advocate for the freedom and dignity of the Palestinian people in the halls of Congress.”
A recent Pew Poll showed a growing divide between Democrats and Republicans on Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
The report found 79 per cent of Republicans sympathise more with Israel than Palestinians, compared with just 27 per cent of Democrats. But in Congress, Ms Berry and Ms Abou Chedid expect Ms Tlaib to work across the aisle and primarily focus on local constituencies.
“From the beginning of her career, Rashida has been a fierce advocate for her local community, fighting to remove toxic waste and championing anti-poverty programs,” Ms Abou Chedid told The National.
The Detroit native is also likely to support an anti-Trump platform. She has announced her willingness to push for the president’s impeachment, and her 2016 arrest came after she shouted “our kids deserve better” and told Mr Trump to read the constitution. She has also drawn support from other left-wing candidates seeking to upset the status quo, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who unseated Democratic Caucus chairman Joe Crowley in primaries in June.
“My grandmother told me never to let a bully tell me, ‘can I do this?’ or ‘you can’t do this’,” Ms Tlaib told supporters yesterday.
Her win, Ms Abou Chedid said, meant Arab and Muslim American parents could now “tell their children that they can be anything they want when they grow up… even a member of the US Congress”.