US elections 2024: After not supporting Harris, Rashida Tlaib secures victory in Michigan

Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib defeated her Republican opponent in Michigan's 12th Congressional District election on Tuesday, becoming the only Palestinian-American woman in the U.S. Congress to secure a fourth term.

The Associated Press declared the race with just 18 percent of the votes counted.

Tlaib secured 77 percent of the vote, beating the Republican Party's James Hooper, who received just 19 percent of the vote.

Their victory comes against the backdrop of Israel's war on Gaza, which has so far killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and has received diplomatic and military support from the Biden-Harris administration for more than a year.

Tlaib was a vocal critic of the war and called on the U.S. to withhold weapons from Israel. Her opposition to the war on Gaza and her support of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses have drawn sharp criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.

In the days leading up to the November election, Tlaib declined to endorse Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for U.S. president, but still urged Americans to go to the polls and vote.

In June, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel accused Tlaib of anti-Semitism, claiming the Palestinian-American congresswoman said Nessel targeted pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Michigan because they were Jewish.

Tlaib never made such comments, which have since been verified and debunked by various news outlets and sources.

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After her first election to the House of Representatives in 2018, Tlaib quickly rose to national prominence and became one of the first two Muslim women in Congress.

She was an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump during his time in office and was often the target of right-wing attacks, including from the president himself.

Since Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023, Tlaib has criticized U.S. support for the war, often drawing the ire of her colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

In November 2023, the House of Representatives voted to censure Tlaib and passed a measure accusing her of “spreading false narratives about the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.”

One of the statements for which she was condemned involved declaring the song “from the river to the sea,” which she described as “an ambitious call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence, not for death, destruction or hatred.”

Israel supporters 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 above criticism. “The idea that criticism of the Israeli government is anti-Semitic sets a very dangerous precedent and has been used to silence diverse voices advocating for human rights across our country,” Tlaib said at the time.