Rashida Tlaib

Rashida Harbi Tlaib (born Rashida Harbi Elabed, 24 July 1976) is an American Democratic lawyer and politician serving since 2019 as U.S. representative from Michigan — the 13th district, then the 12th district from 2023. She is the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress and, with Ilhan Omar, one of the first two Muslim women to serve there; in 2008 she became the first Muslim woman elected to the Michigan Legislature. ^{1 2}

Tlaib was born in Detroit, the eldest of fourteen children of working-class Palestinian immigrants. Her mother, Fatima Elabed (née Tlaib), was born in Beit Ur al-Fauqa near Ramallah in the West Bank; her father, Harbi Ahmad Elabed, was born in Beit Hanina, East Jerusalem, and came via Nicaragua to Detroit, where he worked on an assembly line at a Ford plant; Rashida helped raise her siblings while her parents worked. ^{1 3}

She graduated from Southwestern High School in Detroit in 1994, earned a B.A. in political science from Wayne State University in 1998 and a J.D. from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 2004, and was admitted to the Michigan bar in 2007. ¹

Tlaib started as an intern in 2004 for state representative Steve Tobocman, who hired her onto his staff when he became majority floor leader in 2007 and encouraged her to run for his seat in 2008. She won an eight-way primary with 44% and the general election with over 90%, becoming the first Muslim woman in the Michigan Legislature and the second Muslim woman (after Jamilah Nasheed of Missouri) to serve in any U.S. state legislature. ^{1 3}

She was re-elected in 2010 with 92% of the vote and in 2012 in the redrawn 6th district, defeating fellow incumbent Maureen Stapleton. Term-limited in 2014, she ran for the state Senate and lost the primary to Virgil Smith Jr., then worked at the Sugar Law Center in Detroit, a nonprofit providing free legal representation to workers. ¹

After Representative John Conyers resigned in December 2017 amid a sexual harassment scandal, Tlaib ran in 2018 both in the special election for the remainder of his term and for the full term. She narrowly lost the special-election primary to Detroit City Council president Brenda Jones (37.7% to 35.9%), won the regular primary with 31.2%, and faced no major-party opposition in the general election, becoming the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress. ^{1 3}

On 3 January 2019 she was sworn in on an English translation of the Quran, wearing a traditional embroidered Palestinian thobe — a choice that inspired Palestinian and Palestinian-American women to share their own thobe photos under #TweetYourThobe. ¹ The same day, speaking at a MoveOn reception and recounting a conversation with her son, she vowed, using an expletive, that they would "impeach the motherfucker"; Trump responded that her comments were "highly disrespectful to the United States of America", as the article records. ¹

She was re-elected in 2020 over Brenda Jones with 66%, in 2022 in the new 12th district with 71% in the general election, and in 2024 with over 69%. ¹

This section presents differing views as reported in the sources; it is not the museum's verdict on them.

Her stated positions: Tlaib is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and of "the Squad"; she calls for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), voted to impeach President Trump in 2019 and 2021, and has been a vocal critic of both the Trump and Biden administrations. ^{1 3}

Israel and Palestine: Tlaib calls Israel an apartheid state, supports ending U.S. aid to Israel, backs the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and favours a one-state solution to the conflict. ¹ In August 2019 Israel barred entry to her and Ilhan Omar; Israel then granted her a humanitarian visit to relatives in the West Bank under restrictions on her political statements, and she declined, saying she would not make the trip "under these oppressive conditions", while Israel's interior ministry accused her of making a provocative request. ^{1 3}

The 2023 censure: After the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack, the House censured Tlaib on 7 November 2023 under a resolution accusing her of "promoting false narratives" about the attack and of calling for Israel's destruction through the phrase "from the river to the sea"; 212 Republicans and 22 Democrats voted for it. ¹ Tlaib said the phrase is "an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction or hate", that she had repeatedly denounced the targeting and killing of civilians by both Hamas and the Israeli government, and that "the cries of the Palestinian and Israeli children sound no different to me". ¹ The White House press secretary condemned her use of the slogan the next day. ¹

Campaign funds: In November 2019 the House Ethics Committee announced an investigation into her use of campaign funds for personal expenses; in August 2020 the committee directed her to reimburse her campaign $10,800, citing her strict obligation to comply with campaign finance laws. ¹

The 2024 dispute: Politicians and commentators, including Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel and Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, criticised Tlaib for allegedly insinuating that Nessel prosecuted pro-Palestinian protesters because she is Jewish; a Detroit Metro Times fact check found that Tlaib never mentioned Nessel is Jewish. ¹

Tlaib married Fayez Tlaib in 1998 and divorced in 2015; they have two sons. ¹ The museum publishes no family detail beyond what understanding her public work requires.

Her lasting significance, as the sources present it, is her representation of a Palestinian-American constituency in the highest American legislature, and her place as nearly the lone congressional voice for her positions on the conflict — a role that brought her institution's censure. ¹

• The defined sources cited above, registered in data/source/.
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