Rashida Tlaib credits grassroots effort for election victory

Kat Stafford | Detroit Free Press

Rashida Tlaib knows what her primary night victory represents.

Tlaib, a billed progressive who is on the cusp of a historic victory in a tight race to replace former U.S. Rep. John Conyers, wants to be a symbol of hope for other young mothers and women across the country, who may see themselves reflected in the likely first Muslim woman to serve in Congress.

"When I started talking to families across the district, I realized they have completely embraced my approach to public service of being a fighter and somebody that doesn't back down, " Tlaib said in an interview Wednesday. "I'm very proud of the campaign we ran and somebody like me — I don't have this legacy name, I don't come from deep establishments. I'm just this girl that grew up in southwest Detroit."

Unofficial results indicate Tlaib prevailed in a race to serve a two-year term with 33.2 percent of the vote over Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones, who had 29.2 percent, with nearly all precincts reporting. But in the race to serve out the remainder of Conyers' term, Jones, in an odd twist, is poised to win the Democratic nomination.

Detroit councilwoman Raquel Castañeda-López, who backed and supported Tlaib during the race, said her victory represents hope, as well as happiness and excitement for many. Castañeda-López said she believes Tlaib's grassroots campaign and authenticity garnered her the support of many.

"I think it's something that's one of Rashida's strengths," Castañeda-López said. "She very much feels like a real person who is willing to listen and work with other people and she's willing to stand up and fight and not back down."

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Tlaib's victory is not only a historic moment but undeniable proof that the Muslim community "simply cannot be ignored."

"I believe the Muslim community in Michigan is trailblazing the way for political engagement for the rest of Muslims in the United States of America," Walid said. "I also believe that with Rashida's victory, as well as some other races that took place yesterday in which Muslims fared very well, we're coming to a point in the history of our state where Muslims are seen as part of the authentic fabric of our great state."

Walid, who has known Tlaib for more than 13 years, said her win has reverberated across not only the country, but the world, and challenges the Democratic establishment.

"I spoke with Rashida this morning and she said Al Jazeera news trucks were sitting outside of her grandmother's home in Palestine," Walid said. "... With so much negative media attention in the Muslim world related to America in terms of Trump's Muslim ban and claiming African countries are s-hole countries, this creates a different narrative that the entire nation is not like Trump's narrative."

Tlaib, a 42-year-old mother, lawyer and social justice advocate who lives in Detroit, ran an aggressive, disciplined race for the seat, knocking on doors, getting yard signs up even in areas where you might think her rivals would be far more visible and making her presence felt.

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"I centered everything around that," Tlaib said, adding she knocked on tens of thousands of doors during her campaign. "Everything was about direct human contact. Robocalls, mailers, nothing can replace conversations and I know I was the only one doing this very aggressively and from a place of love."

Citing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 28, who is likely to become the youngest woman ever elected to Congress in New York, Tlaib said she believes the country is on the verge of seeing a major shift toward more progressive candidates.

"Somebody as young as her, this is a woman who went through similar challenges I did," Tlaib said. "That's the kind of energy I'm hoping our election continues to build. We've gotten so many messages from young women around the country who are excited about the possibility of running. ... We're going to have more women run for office. We can shift what's going on in Congress."

Tlaib, known for her fiery rhetoric, said she wants to directly challenge the power structure in Congress, which she believes has been restrictive to people of color and those from diverse backgrounds.

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"We are really up against a structure that ... it is racist, it is against people of color," Tlaib said. "It's exciting to say this is my opportunity to really elevate different voices and the families across the district."

In a year when, nationally, female candidates, especially outwardly progressive ones, are winning primaries, Tlaib, she says, is “the bullhorn girl,” ready to take on health care, civil rights, educational equity, corporate greed.

“Corrections is a for-profit industry,” she previously told the Free Press. “Give me two years, and I’ll change that issue.”

As a former legislator, she has the political battle scars to show from past run-ins with the Morouns, the Michigan billionaire family that controls the Ambassador Bridge, and with the state Department of Environmental Quality over piles of pet coke piled up along the Detroit River some years ago.

She also has a long history as a political firebrand who once suggested on the state House floor that women withhold sex from men as a male-dominated Legislature argued in favor of abortion restrictions.

“I think it scares people because I can’t be bought and I’m really smart,” she previously said, stopping to laugh, catching her own apparent immodesty. Then adding, with a sort of verbal shrug, “I am.”

Tlaib also made waves two years ago when she disrupted a rally held at Cobo Hall for President Donald Trump, who was on the campaign trail at the time. In a guest piece for the Free Press in Aug. 24, Tlaib said she told Trump that “our children deserve better” and asked him to provide a better example to children.

"I implored him to read the U.S. Constitution," she wrote at the time "And then I was grabbed by several security personnel who physically moved me to the exit while I continued to express my concerns."

During three terms in office as a state representative — she ran to replace her old boss, Steve Tobocman, who was term-limited in 2008 — she says she accomplished a lot, fighting for education funding and community service centers, getting the state’s community court system up and running (it lets offenders of certain misdemeanors have their charges dismissed on completion of a community service program), and winning passage of a bill that effectively cracked down on scrap metal thieves and their dealers.

In 2014, she was the Michigan Association of Police Chief’s legislator of the year.

But she has also taken unpopular stances — such as supporting the lease of Belle Isle to the state to pay for its upkeep and improvements — and ruffled the political feathers of those whom she has run against and those, as she says, who have suggested she should wait her turn.

But Tlaib feels she's in a position to help those who may come after her.

"For me as a young mom ... I really am focused on making sure we're doing everything we can so every single person in our country ... has the right to thrive ... and live in a just and equitable society," Tlaib said.

Kat Stafford is the Detroit government watchdog reporter for the Free Press, covering city issues and the community. Contact Kat Stafford: kstafford@freepress.com or 313-223-4759.