Rashida Tlaib

Rashida Harbi Tlaib ( tə-LEEB; née Elabed; born July 24, 1976) is an American lawyer and politician serving as a U.S. representative from Michigan since 2019, representing the state's 12th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress and one of the first two Muslim women (along with Ilhan Omar) elected to Congress. Tlaib was born to working-class Palestinian immigrants in Detroit in 1976 and is the oldest of 14 children. She graduated from Southwestern High School in Detroit in 1994, from Wayne State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1998, and from Thomas M. Cooley Law School with a Juris Doctor in 2004. She was admitted to the bar in the state of Michigan in 2007. Tlaib's political career began in 2004, when she interned with State Representative Steve Tobocman, who hired her to his staff when he became majority floor leader in 2007. He encouraged her to run for his seat the next year. She did so, and won the 2008 election, becoming the first Muslim woman to serve in the state legislature.