Back in August, I noted Ms Rashida Tlaib, a Muslim woman of Palistinian descent, had just won the primary contest to be the Democratic nominee for a Detroit based state seat. In the elections held this week, she won that seat, polling 90 per cent to the Republican candidate’s 10 per cent, and in the process becoming the first Muslim woman elected to the Michigan legislature.
According to the American Muslim Alliance, only nine Muslims were serving in state legislatures nationwide before Tuesday’s elections, and only one of them is a woman. There are two Muslim members of Congress — Democrats Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Andre Carson of Indiana.
Lawyer and community activist Rashida Tlaib, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants who never attended high school, becomes the first Muslim woman ever to serve in the Michigan Legislature. She said she wouldn’t have run but for the repeated urging of her Jewish boss and predecessor, outgoing Democratic state Rep. Steve Tobocman.
“In my heart, I was more of a social worker than anything,” said Tlaib, 32. She said her top priorities will be immigrant rights and pollution, a major issue to her constituents who are surrounded by oil refineries and factories.
The eldest of 14 children of a retired Ford Motor Co. worker and his wife, she was the first in her family to earn a high school diploma. She went on to finish college and law school while helping raise 13 siblings.
Her mother was born in Beit Ur El Foka, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Her father was born in Beit Hanina, a Jerusalem suburb.
The Michigan Legislature’s first known Muslim member was James Karoub. Born in Highland Park to an imam and his wife who came from what now is Lebanon, Karoub served three terms in the state House in the 1960s.
Tuesday’s election also brought another new Arab-American to the state House, Republican Justin Amash of Cascade in conservative western Michigan. He is Christian and the son of a Palestinian-born father and Syrian-born mother. His Democratic opponent, Albert Abbasse, also is Arab-American.
Meanwhile, US ethnic media outlet China Press reports that Carol Liu, elected senator of California’s 21st District, became the first Asian Woman senator in the United States. Liu was born in Berkeley and grew up in Oakland, CA. Her mother is a fifth generation Chinese immigrant and her father moved to the United States from China after the Second World War.
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Um, Liu was elected to the California State Senate. Still no Asian-American women in the Senate, although both Hawaiian senators are Asian-American men.
Yes, but they still call them Senates and Senators as I understand it. I presume that means Liu is the first Asian-American woman elected to a Senate even at a state level (which is a bit surprising to me, but I’m just providing the quote).
Rashida Tlaib’s election was also only to a state legislature too. I think it’s still worth noting though, especially given the dreadful desparate anti-Palestinian slurs from the Republicans in the final days of the campaign.
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