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During a rich and full week that changes her life, Rashida Tlaib of Southwest Detroit grabs moments to savor the sweetness and share it on social media.
"The voters last night elected progressive fighters to hold Trump and the Republicans accountable. That's our mandate, and that's what I intend to do," she posts after winning the U.S. House seat held by John Conyers for 27 terms until he resigned last December when staff members accused him of sexual harassment.
The Democrat, whose only ballot opponents were from the Green Party and Working Class Party, easily withstood a late write-in try by Detroit Council president Brenda Jones. Tlaib (pronounced tah-LEEB) got 85 percent of Tuesday's votes.
She earns national attention as the first Palestinian-American elected to Congress and one of the first two Muslim women who'll serve there. The other is Ilham Omar, a Somalia-American from Minneapolis who's also a Democrat.
In 2008 Tlaib became the first Muslim woman elected to Michigan's Legislature, where she served three House terms.
Rashida Tlaib: "I will never sell you out."
(Instagram photo)
The former Rashida Harbi Elabed was born in Detroit 42 years ago as the oldest of 14 children whose parents immigrated in 1975 from Beit Ur al-Fauqa, a West Bank village. Her father worked at a Ford plant.
"All my experiences -- my family, background and the culture I grew up in -- instilled in me the importance of taking care of the people who need it the most,” she says in a July 2010 magazine article. "I wouldn't be where I am without my faith."
The future politician graduated from Southwestern High (which shut in 2012) and has degrees from Wayne State (1998) and Cooley Law School (2004). "I've still got student loans to pay off like the rest of us," she tweets Wednesday in reply to a Detroiter.
She and ex-husband Fayez Tlaib have two sons, Adam and Yousif.
Her district includes midtown Detroit and much of the area's east and west sides, though not downtown riverfront or the Grosse Pointes. She represents part of Downriver, Dearborn Heights, Redford Township, Inkster, Romulus and other communities.
On social media this week, Rep.-Elect Tlaib thanks backers, posts messages to constituents and shares charming selfies. These are among her Twittrer and Instagram comments, followed by three of her photos:
- "This is our time."
- "The people want courageous representatives who won't back down!"
- "13th District residents: Get ready to be spoiled with unwavering advocacy and constituent services. I will never back down because you deserve no less. Now, let's get to work."
- "I will never sell you out, and my door will always be open."
- "Get ready to experience real courage to fight against corporate greed and structural racism in our country! About to get real in Congress."
- "To our phenomenal volunteers and supporters: Thank you for believing in the possibility of this moment."
- "If you think DonaldTrump's mad now, just wait until 'Fox and Friends' starts talking about me and Ilhan" Omar.
- "There are so many organizations who fought alongside us to give the people of #MI13 a fighter in Congress, who put in the work at the grassroots to mobilize volunteers and donors and voters, who did the tough work of taking back our government, bit by bit." [Start of a seven-tweet thread]
The candidate snaps this Election Day selfie with two volunteers outside a polling place.
Laveta Browne, who taught at Southwestern, gives an Election Day gift to her past student. "Seeing the glow and pride in my high school teacher's face makes my heart melt," Tlaib posts. "Now she will see one of her students take on the fight for justice in the United States Congress."
Another reunion, this time with Hector Perez, one of her Wilson Middle School teachers in Wyandotte.
