During the Tuesday night primary elections across the United States, history was all but guaranteed when former Michigan State Representative Rashida Tlaib won the Democratic Primary for the State’s 13th district. Talib in turn will run unopposed in November which means she’ll likely be the first ever Muslim woman elected to the United States Congress.
Via the New York Times:
“I want people across the country to know that you don’t need to sell out,” Ms. Tlaib said early Wednesday morning. “You don’t have to change who you are to run for office — and that is what this country is about.”
Ms. Tlaib is poised to become the first Muslim woman ever elected to Congress, after she narrowly defeated Brenda Jones, Detroit’s City Council president, in a Democratic primary race to succeed longtime Representative John Conyers Jr. in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District. She will run unopposed in November. A separate Democratic primary contest for a special election to serve the remaining months of Mr. Conyers’s term was too close to call on Wednesday morning.
Ms. Tlaib, a former Michigan state legislator, Detroit native and daughter of Palestinian immigrants, was so cautious about celebrating her victory that she waited until every vote was counted — and long after The Associated Press had called the race in her favor — to begin her celebrations at almost 3 a.m.
Tlaib – a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, a growing wing on the left – won her wide open primary pretty decisively with Brenda Jones coming in second trailing nearly 3,000 votes behind. Jones and Tlaib also squared off in a separate special election to determine who’ll finish out the term of John Conyers, the long-time Michigan Congressman who stepped down in disgrace after a number of female staffers accused him of sexual harassment last December.
Compared to New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who won a stunning upset election and will likely herself be seating in the U.S. Congress, Tlaib ran on a very progressive platform which included a $15 minimum wage, expanded medicare for all and protecting and securing unions.
Likewise, Tlaib has been a vocal opponent of Donald Trump.
Tlaib supports overturning Trump’s travel ban as well as eliminating detention centers and supporting a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
Tlaib was also forcibly removed during a Donald Trump campaign speech in 2016 and heckled the then GOP candidate during a speech in Detroit.
