Just one day shy of the two-year anniversary of her vocal protest at (and removal from) a 2016 Donald Trump rally, Rashida Tlaib celebrated a momentous primary win that all but guarantees that there will be at least one Muslim woman in Congress in 2019.
Thanks to a failed write-in campaign by a Republican who literally calls himself “Dude,” Tlaib, 42, is running unopposed in November for the seat formerly held by John Conyers since 1965, which will also make her the first Palestinian-American woman to hold national office.
Tlaib (pronounced ta-LEEB) is a single mom of two, an attorney, and a former Michigan state representative, Somehow, she found a few moments to speak with Daily Kos guest reporter Iara Peng at the She The People Summit, a gathering unlike any other, designed to unite women of color as they fight their way to the positions of power they so rightly deserve.
Though she’s very careful not to count her ballots before they’re cast, Tlaib offered some optimistic thoughts about her own fairly certain future in national politics, and the future of other women of color, including a fellow Muslim candidate, Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, whose campaign Tlaib strengthened by sending a dozen of her own staffers to help out.
Women of color are now the main breadwinners for many homes across the country, and so it’s really important and critical for us to be at the table. We’re tired of … waiting for somebody else to do it for us, and I think this generation of women—from women in their 20s, 30s, 40s, like myself— that are saying “we’re not going to sit on the sidelines, we’re not going to be outside of the ring, we’re going to get in, and we’re going to fight from within.”
Take a few minutes and watch the full interview below, and see why Detroit’s voters have chosen Tlaib to make history.
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