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The new U.S. House member from Southwest Detroit doesn't try to hide her pride and giddiness on the eve of taking an oath to represent the 13th Congressional District.
Rashida Tlaib is "unapologetically me."
"So surreal," Rashida Tlaib posts Wednesday night on Facebook after visiting her office and touring the Capitol with sons Adam and Yousif and her mother, Monet Davis Sis Mimi of Detroit.
A parent's presence "makes this even more emotional and impactful for me," adds the 42-year-old Democrat, whose parents immigrated in 1975 from Beit Ur al-Fauqa, a West Bank village. "Could she have ever imagined that her daughter would one day become a member of Congress?"
Five hours earlier, she posted this six-second clip from the Longworth House Office Building about how it's "sinking in more now:"
The incoming member also shows her emotions on her hashtags, which include #MakingHistoryTogether and #unapologeticallyMe.
The congresswoman on Thursday morning.
(Twitter photo via Amer Zahr)
That last phrase carries over to the first Palestinian American representative's choice of a traditional embroidered garment, known as a thobe, for Thursday's oath-taking ceremony on the House floor.
In 2008, Tlaib became the first Muslim woman elected to Michigan's Legislature, where she served three House terms. On Nov. 6, she got 85 percent of district votes to win the seat held by John Conyers for 27 terms until he resigned in December 2017 after aides accused him of sexual harassment.
The future politician graduated from Detroit's Southwestern High (which shut seven years ago) and has degrees from Wayne State (1998) and Cooley Law School (2004). "I've still got student loans to pay off like the rest of us," she tweeted after the election in reply to a Detroiter.
She's in cordial contact with ex-husband Fayez Tlaib, who's tagged in a post showing their boys in Washington.
The 13th District includes Midtown Detroit and much of the area's east and west sides, though not downtown's riverfront areas or the Grosse Pointes. She also represents part of Downriver, Dearborn Heights, Redford Township, Inkster, Romulus and other communities.
Because "this historic election belongs to all of us," as she puts it, Tlaib will have a local celebration and re-enactment of her swearing-in at noon Jan. 12 in River Rouge High School, 1460 Coolidge Hwy.
-- Alan Stamm
