Tlaib, Rashida

Rashida 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, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Wayne State University in 1998, and received her Juris Doctor from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 2004, becoming a lawyer in 2007. She won the 2008 election to become the first Muslim woman to serve in the Michigan state legislature, representing the 6th and 12th districts. In 2018, Tlaib won the Democratic nomination and general election for the United States House of Representatives in Michigan's 13th congressional district, becoming the first Palestinian-American woman to be elected to Congress. She assumed office on January 3, 2023, in Michigan's 12th District, with her current term ending on January 3, 2027.\n\nTlaib serves as Vice Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and serves on the House Oversight Committee and House Financial Services Committee, including subcommittees for Oversight and Investigations, Housing Community Development and Insurance, and Consumer Protections and Financial Institutions. She sponsors bills primarily in international affairs, arts and culture, finance and financial services, immigration, taxation, crime and law enforcement, housing and community development, and government operations. Between 2019 and 2025 she introduced more than 160 bills and amendments and passed 40. Her first bill passed and signed into law in Congress was the Payee Fraud Prevention Act, putting an end to fraudulent scams targeting vulnerable retirees and their pensions.