2 Muslims on track to win Congress votes
SOMALI REFUGEE ILHAN OMAR AND SOCIAL WORKER RASHIDA TLAIB WILL BE THE FIRST MUSLIM WOMEN IN CONGRESS
Victory of Somali refugee Ilhan and social worker Rashida, born to Palestinian immigrants, will be historic first |
US voters are poised to elect two Muslim women to Congress in the midterm election next week, marking a historic first even as anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric has been on the rise.
Ilhan Omar, a Somali refugee, is all but certain to be elected to the US House of Representatives in a heavily-Democratic district in the Midwestern state of Minnesota, where she is the party’s nominee.
Rashida Tlaib, a social worker born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrant parents, will win a House seat in a district where she is running unopposed.
The two will be the first Muslim women to serve in the US Congress. They will increase the total number of Muslims in Congress to three.
Congressman Andre Carson, who is Muslim and African American, is likely to win re-election in his safely-Democratic district in the state of Indiana.
The expected electoral milestone is in stark contrast to the rise in anti-Muslim sentiment around the country. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported a 21 per cent increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the first six months of 2018. Both Tlaib and Omar have positioned themselves as polar opposites of President Donald Trump and his Republican Party.
They oppose Trump’s restrictive immigration policies, support a universal health care system which Republicans oppose, and want to abolish US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
ICE has conducted raids throughout the country, leaving immigrant communities terrified of deportations — including longtime Iraqi refugees in Michigan.
“The election of Donald Trump was a wake-up call,” Colin Christopher of the Islamic Society of North America told journalists.
“Now we’re seeing communities that were once absent from public conversations ... all of a sudden are really engaged.”
Anti-Trump message
The two women are part of a historically diverse crop of candidates — by race, gender, and sexuality — challenging Republican incumbents.
They reflect a Trump era in which race and women’s rights and empowerment have emerged as flashpoint issues for Democrats, and identity politics are increasingly important.
Polls indicate next week’s election will likely hand Democrats control of the lower house of Congress in a rebuke of Trump’s administration. The Senate is seen as more likely to stay in Republican majority control.
Tlaib was born and raised in Detroit — the eldest of 14 children. In 2008, she became the first Muslim woman to serve in the Michigan state legislature.
The 42-year-old has positioned herself as a champion of the working class and strongly anti-Trump. During the 2016 presidential campaign, she heckled then-candidate Trump during a speech in Detroit.
Tlaib won the Democratic party’s primary election in August in a predominantly African American district.
Ilhan Omar is the first Somali-American legislator in the US. Omar fled her native country’s civil war at the age of eight, and later immigrated with her family to the US.