Michigan set to send first Muslim woman to Congress

Former Michigan state Rep. Rashida Tlaib won the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, paving the way for her to become the first Muslim woman elected into Congress. 

Tlaib, who ran for a House seat previously held by former Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), defeated five other candidates in the state’s Democratic primary, according to The Associated Press.

{mosads}No Republicans or third-party candidates ran in the primary, meaning that Tlaib is set to start a two-year term in Congress after the November election. 

She would become the first Muslim woman and Palestinian-American woman in Congress, HuffPost reported.

“People think it’s corny ― I do want to change the world, and I want people like me to have a seat at the table,” Tlaib told HuffPost last month.

Tlaib served in the Michigan House from 2009 to 2014, according to the AP, which noted that the Democratic primary to fill the remaining months of Conyers’s term, where she battled Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones, was still too close to call as of Wednesday morning.

Conyers resigned in December 2017 due to mounting allegations of sexual harassment after representing the Detroit area for 52 years.