Rashida Harbi Tlaib is an American politician and lawyer serving as the US representative for since 2019.
40 Facts About Rashida Tlaib
2.
In 2018, Rashida Tlaib won the Democratic nomination for the United States House of Representatives seat from Michigan's 13th congressional district.
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Rashida Tlaib ran unopposed in the general election and became the first woman of Palestinian descent in Congress, the first Muslim woman to serve in the Michigan legislature, and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, along with Ilhan Omar.
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Rashida Tlaib is a member of The Squad, an informal group of six US representatives on the left wing of the Democratic Party.
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Rashida Tlaib has argued in favor of abolishing the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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Rashida Tlaib was a vocal critic of the Trump administration and advocated for Trump's impeachment.
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The eldest of 14 children, Rashida Tlaib Harbi was born on July 24,1976, to working-class Palestinian immigrants in Detroit.
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Rashida Tlaib's mother was born in Beit Ur El Foka, near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
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Rashida Tlaib's father was born in Beit Hanina, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
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Rashida Tlaib worked on an assembly line in a Ford Motor Company plant.
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Rashida Tlaib attended elementary school at Harms, Bennett Elementary, and Phoenix Academy.
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Rashida Tlaib graduated from Southwestern High School in Detroit in 1994.
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Rashida Tlaib began her political career in 2004 when she interned with State Representative Steve Tobocman.
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In 2008 Tobocman encouraged Rashida Tlaib to run for his seat, which he was vacating due to term limits.
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Rashida Tlaib faced a crowded primary that included several Latinos, including former State Representative Belda Garza.
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In 2010, Rashida Tlaib faced a primary election challenge from Jim Czachorowski in his first bid for office.
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In 2012, Rashida Tlaib won reelection again to the Michigan House in the newly redrawn 6th district against fellow incumbent Maureen Stapleton.
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Rashida Tlaib is the second Muslim to serve in the Michigan State House of Representatives, after James Karoub.
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Rashida Tlaib is the second Muslim woman to serve in a state legislature nationwide, after Jamilah Nasheed of Missouri.
20.
In 2018, Rashida Tlaib announced her intention to run for the 13th congressional district.
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Rashida 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.
22.
Rashida Tlaib faced no major-party opposition in November 2018, though Jones mounted an eleventh-hour write-in bid.
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Rashida Tlaib took the congressional oath of office on January 3,2019, swearing in on an English-language translation of the Quran.
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Rashida Tlaib wore a thawb, a traditional embroidered Arab dress, to the swearing-in ceremony.
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On November 14,2019, the House Ethics Committee announced that it was investigating whether Rashida Tlaib used congressional campaign money for personal expenses in violation of House rules.
26.
Rashida Tlaib has said she opposed providing aid to a "Netanyahu Israel" and supported the Palestinian right of return and a one-state solution.
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Rashida Tlaib is one of the few members of Congress to openly support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the Israeli government.
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Rashida Tlaib has defended her support of the boycott on free speech grounds and as a response to Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and settlement building, which the international community considers illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
29.
In January 2019, Rashida Tlaib criticized anti-BDS legislation proposed by Senators Marco Rubio and Jim Risch.
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Rashida Tlaib argued that boycotting is a right and that Rubio and Risch "forgot what country they represent".
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Rashida Tlaib was one of 17 members of Congress to vote against a July 2019 House resolution condemning the BDS movement, which passed by a margin of 381 votes.
32.
Rashida Tlaib suggested boycotting HBO host Bill Maher after he denounced the BDS movement.
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In March 2020, Rashida Tlaib spoke at a gala for American Muslims for Palestine, a group that supports an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, equality for Arab Israelis, and a right of return for Palestinian refugees.
34.
On September 23,2021, Rashida Tlaib called Israel an "apartheid state" on the House floor during a debate over funding for Iron Dome; Representative Ted Deutch responded by accusing Rashida Tlaib of antisemitism.
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The next day, Israeli authorities granted a request by Rashida Tlaib to visit her relatives in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on humanitarian grounds and under certain restrictions on political statements.
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Rashida Tlaib has criticized Saudi Arabia's human rights violations and the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.
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Rashida Tlaib supports ending the federal prohibition of cannabis and "releasing people convicted of marijuana-related offenses".
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On November 5,2021, Rashida Tlaib was one of six House Democrats to break with their party and vote against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act because it was decoupled from the social safety net provisions in the Build Back Better Act.
39.
Rashida Tlaib was an early supporter of the movement to abolish the Immigration Customs Enforcement agency.
40.
In September 2018, The New York Times reported that Rashida Tlaib walked into her family's mosque to express her gratitude for the opportunity to run for Congress, articulating a belief that "my Allah is She".