Rashida Tlaib Biography
Rashida Tlaib (Rashida Harbi Tlaib) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Michigan’s 13th congressional district since 2019. The Michigan district includes the western half of Detroit, along with several of its western suburbs and much of the Downriver area. Tlaib as a member of the Democratic Party, represented the 6th and 12th districts of the Michigan House of Representatives before her election to Congress. Tlaib was the first Muslim woman to serve in the Michigan legislature.
Tlaib won the Democratic nomination in 2018, for the United States House of Representatives seat from Michigan’s 13th congressional district. Tlaib as the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress ran unopposed in the general election. With Ilhan Omar (D-MN), they Tlaib is one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress.
She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are the first two DSA members to serve in Congress. She has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration and advocated impeachment. On foreign affairs, Tlaib has sharply criticized the Israeli government, called for U.S. to end aid to Israel and expressed support for the Divestment, Boycott and Sanction campaign to apply pressure on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank settlements.
Rashida Tlaib Age
Rashida Tlaib was born on July 24, 1976 in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. She is 42 years old as of 2018.
Rashida Tlaib Net Worth
As of 2018 Rashida Tlaib has an estimated net worth of $800,000 US Dollars.
Rashida Tlaib Husband
Rashida Tlaib married Fayez Tlaib in 1998 when she was 22 years old. The two have two sons, Adam and Yousif, the couple have since divorced. A campaign spokesperson called Tlaib a single mother in 2018.
Rashida Tlaib Website
Rashida Tlaib Family
Tlaib is the eldest of 14 children, and was born to working-class Palestinian immigrants in Detroit. Tlaib’s mother was born in Beit Ur El Foka, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Her father was born in Beit Hanina, a neighborhood in Jerusalem. He moved to Nicaragua first, then to Detroit, where he worked on an assembly line in a Ford Motor Company plant. Tlaib played a role in raising her siblings since she was eldest, while her parents worked but sometimes relied on welfare for support.
Rashida Tlaib Education
She attended elementary school at Harms, Bennett Elementary and Phoenix Academy. in 1994 Tlaib graduated from Southwestern High School in Detroit and from Wayne State University with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1998. In 2004, she earned a Juris Doctor from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School.
Rashida Tlaib Michigan House of Representatives
Tobocman encouraged Tlaib to run for his seat in 2008, which he was vacating due to term limits. The urban district is 40% Hispanic, 30% non-Hispanic white, 25% African-American and 2% Arab American. Tlaib dealt with a crowded primary that included several Latinos, including former State Representative Belda Garza. Tlaib emerged victorious, carrying 44% of the vote in the eight-way Democratic primary. She won the general election with over 90% of the vote.
Tlaib faced a primary election challenge in 2010, from Jim Czachorowski in his first bid for office. She picked up 85% of the vote, to Czachorowski’s 15%. Tlaib also won the general election with 92% of the vote against Darrin Daigle a Republican challenger. Tlaib won reelection again to the Michigan House in 2012, in the newly redrawn 6th District against, Maureen Stapleton a fellow incumbent. In 2014 Tlaib could not run for the Michigan House a fourth time because of term limits and ran for the Michigan Senate, losing to Virgil Smith Jr. an in the Democratic primary in August 2014.
During her tenure as a legislator, she was one of ten Muslims serving in state legislatures across the United States. After James Karoub, Tlaib became is the second Muslim to serve in the Michigan State House of Representatives. Also after Jamilah Nasheed of Missouri, Tlaib becomes the second Muslim woman to serve in a state legislature nationwide. Tlaib and Justin Amash, a Republican who was also elected in 2008, were the first two Palestinian-American members of the Michigan legislature.
Tlaib worked at Sugar Law Center after leaving the state legislature. Sugar Law Center is a Detroit nonprofit that provides free legal representation for workers.
Rashida Tlaib Congress
Tlaib announced her intention to run for John Conyers’s seat in Congress in 2018. Tlaib filed in both the Democratic primary in the special election for the balance of Conyers’s 27th term and in the general election for a full two-year term. The two elections were to be held the same day. In the primary No Republican qualified but the 13th is so heavily Democratic that any Republican would have faced nearly impossible odds. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+33, the 13th is the most Democratic district in Michigan and tied for the 20th-most Democratic district in the nation. Conyers held the seat from 1965 until his resignation in 2017 without serious difficulty (it was numbered as the 1st from 1965 to 1993 and as the 14th from 1993 to 2013) and never won with less than 77 percent of the vote.
Tlaib had raised $893,030 in funds as of July 16, 2018, which is more than her five opponents in the August 7 Democratic primary. Tlaib finished second in the Democratic primary for the special election to Brenda Jones, Detroit City Council president who received 32,727 votes (37.7% of the total) to Tlaib’s 31,084 (35.9%). Bill Wild, mayor of Westland, received 13,152 votes (15.2%) and Ian Conyers, the great-nephew of former Congressman Conyers, took fourth with 9,740 (11.2%). In the special election, Jones faced no major-party opposition
2018 general election
Tlaib defeated Jones and Wild, among others in the Democratic primary for the general election. Tlaib received 27,803 votes, or 31.2%. In November 2018, Tlaib faced no major-party opposition, though Jones mounted an eleventh-hour independent bid.
On January 3, 2019, Tlaib took the congressional oath of office, swearing in on an English-language translation of the Quran. Tlaib wore a thawb (thobe), a traditional embroidered Palestinian dress, to the swearing-in ceremony. This inspired a number of Palestinian and Palestinian-American women to share pictures on social media with the hashtag #TweetYourThobe.
Rashida Tlaib Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Tlaib has opposed providing aid to a “Netanyahu Israel” and supported the Palestinian right of return and a one-state solution. She is also one of the few members of Congress who openly support the Divestment, Boycott and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Tlaib criticized anti-BDS legislation in January 2019, proposed by Senators Marco Rubio and Jim Risch. Tlaib argued that boycotting is a right and said that Risch and Rubio “forgot what country they represent”. Several Jewish groups critisized Tlaib’s comments including the Anti-Defamation League, which said that “Though the legislation discussed is sponsored by four non-Jewish Senators, any charge of dual loyalty has special sensitivity and resonance for Jews, particularly in an environment of rising anti-Semitism.” In response, Tlaib stated that her comments were directed at Rubio and Risch.
Saudi Arabia
Tlaib has criticized Saudi the Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen and Arabia’s human rights violations.
Trump administration
Tlaib supports efforts to impeach President Trump. She also protested a speech Trump gave at Cobo Center and was ejected from the venue. On January 3, 2019, on her first day in Congress, Tlaib called for the impeachment of Trump in an op-ed article co-authored with John Bonifaz for the Detroit Free Press. In the op-ed, she differs from top Democratic leaders on how to move forward with impeachment:
Tlaib attended a reception for the MoveOn campaign later that day and spoke on stage. Tlaib ended the speech recounting a conversation she had with her son, him saying: “Look, mama, you won. Bullies don’t win.” She replied to him, she recounted “And I said, ‘Baby, they don’t, because we’re gonna go in there and impeach the motherfucker.” At the White House press conference that was the next day at a Trump said, that you cant impeach someone who is doing a graet job and Trump also thought that Tlaib dishonoured herself and her own family. Trump also added that it was a high disrect to the United States of America.
In a radio interview with Mehdi Hasan of The Intercept, Tlaib reiterated her frequent call for Trump’s impeachment, saying, its never a waste of time to hold the president of the United States accountable and they need to understand their duties as members of Congress and she believe looking at even Nixon’s impeachment, or his—literally, his resignation, was Republicans and Democrats coming together and putting country first, coming together and putting their values first”. Tlaib also added ”You’re seeing it now more and more. Even now, they’re standing up to Steve King.”
Rashida Tlaib Electoral History
- 2008 campaign for State House
- Rashida Tlaib (D), 90%
- Darrin Daigle (R), 10%
2008 campaign for State House, Democratic Primary
- Rashida Tlaib (D), 44%
- Carl Ramsey (D), 26%
- Belda Garza (D), 9%
- Daniel Solano (D), 7%
- Lisa Randon (D), 7%
- Denise Hearn (D), 5%
- Rochelle Smith (D), 1%
- Nellie Saenz (D), 1%
2010 campaign for State House, Democratic Primary
- Rashida Tlaib (D), 85%
- Jim Czachorowski (D), 15%
2010 campaign for State House
- Rashida Tlaib (D), 92%
- Darrin Daigle (R), 8%
2014 campaign for State Senate, Democratic Primary
- Virgil Smith (D), 50%
- Rashida Tlaib (D), 42%
- Howard Worthy (D), 8%