US elections 2024: After not endorsing Harris, Rashida Tlaib secures win in Michigan
Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib defeated her Republican opponent in Michigan's 12th congressional district election on Tuesday, securing a fourth term as the only Palestinian-American woman in the US Congress.
The Associated Press called the race with just 18 percent of the votes counted.
Tlaib secured 77 percent of the vote, defeating the Republican Party's James Hooper who received just 19 percent of the vote.
Her victory comes amid the backdrop of Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians so far and has been diplomatically and militarily supported by the Biden-Harris administration for more than a year.
Tlaib has been a vocal critic of the war, calling for the US to withhold weapons from Israel. Her opposition to the war on Gaza and support for pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses have drawn harsh criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.
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In the days leading up to the November election, Tlaib declined to endorse Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris for US president but still urged Americans to go to the polls and vote.
In June, Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, accused Tlaib of antisemitism, claiming the Palestinian-American congresswoman had said Nessel was targeting pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Michigan for being Jewish.
Tlaib never made such comments, which various news outlets and sources have since fact-checked and debunked.
After being first elected to the House of Representatives in 2018, Tlaib quickly rose to national prominence, becoming one of the first two Muslim women in Congress.
She was an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump during his time in office and became the target of frequent right-wing attacks, including from the president himself.
Since the beginning of Israel's war on Gaza in October 2023, Tlaib has criticised US support for the war, often drawing ire from her colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
In November 2023, the House of Representatives voted to censure Tlaib, passing a measure accusing her of "promoting false narratives regarding the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel".
One of the remarks she was condemned for involved explaining the chant "from the river to the sea", which she described as "an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction or hate".
Supporters of Israel say the phrase promotes the destruction of Israel.
The same words led to political commentator Marc Lamont Hill being fired from CNN in 2018.
“No government is beyond criticism. The idea that criticising the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent and it’s been used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation," Tlaib said at the time.
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