Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib refused to endorse Kamala Harris for president during a campaign rally on Friday.
The first Palestinian-American in Congress is the only member of Congress’ progressive group ‘The Squad’ to have not backed the Democratic presidential candidate.
The congresswoman from Michigan’s 12th district has been one of the most vocal critics of the Biden-Harris administration’s role in the Gaza war.
She was issuing a late rallying cry to voters at the United Auto Workers union rally in Detroit in one of the seven battleground states that will ultimately decide the election.
But she steered clear of supporting Harris and instead just encouraged union members to cast their ballots in what could be one of the closest elections in history.
‘Don’t underestimate the power you all have,’ she said according to The Detroit News. ‘More than those ads, those lawn signs, those billboards, you all have more power to turn out people that understand we’ve got to fight back against corporate greed in our country.
Michigan is one of the battlegrounds that will go a long way to determining who is in the White House.
The Gaza war has greater importance there than anywhere else in the nation, because of large Muslim population.
Earlier in the day Tlaib tore into Trump during his visit to Dearborn, the only majority Arab-American city in the country, to court voters furious at the U.S. support of Israel.
Tlaib tore into the former president. ‘Trump is a proud Islamophobe + serial liar who doesn’t stand for peace,’ she wrote on X.
‘The reality is that the Biden admin’s unconditional support for genocide is what got us here.
‘This should be a wake-up call for those who continue to support genocide. This election didn’t have to be close.’
Tlaib overwhelmingly won her 2018 election to represent the 13th district of Michigan. She earned 82.4 percent of the vote.
In 2020, she won the general election with 78.1 percent and in 2022 won with 70.8 percent.
Her margin of victory has decreased by several points each election cycle – but it’s unclear so far how she will fare against Republican James Hooper on November 5.
Tlaib’s district includes Dearborn and other western suburb areas of Detroit, which is a very blue area. She ran unopposed in her primary election this cycle.
In the 2020 census, Michigan lost a seat in the House, and in 2023 redistricting saw Rep. Tlaib’s jurisdiction changed to the 12th Congressional District.
Tlaib, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, also helped lead a coalition of Muslim and other anti-Israel voters in the presidential primary election casting their ballots ‘uncommitted’ instead of for President Joe Biden.
It was a show of widespread protest against Biden’s continued support for ally Israel in its war against Hamas terrorists operating out of Gaza.
No lawmaker has been more vocal in their criticism of the U.S. support for Israel.
The so-called ‘Squad’ exploded into the news six years ago and have barely been out of the headlines since – but what will 2024 mean for the so-called Democratic ‘Squad’?
The group was established in Congress in the 2018 midterm elections conducted halfway through Donald Trump’s term in the White House.
It emerged as what Democrats saw as a progressive correction and response to the former president’s populist conservative policies.
All four original members were minority women younger than the average member of the U.S. House, which was 58-years-old.
In successive congressional elections more progressive politicians arrived in the House and added to the group, with their slogan becoming: ‘I Stand With The Squad’.
The new additions were either welcomed by the existing members themselves or linked to the growing section of lawmakers by the media.
However, in this election cycle, the squad has begun to shrink for the first time.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) was the first to fall after he was defeated in his June primary election following only one term.
Then in August, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) also lost her primary election amid a massive push from pro-Israel group to oust pro-Palestinian members of Congress.
The 2024 election brings many questions for the future of the country – and Congress – including whether the ‘squad’ will maintain its influence.
Here, DailyMail.com breaks down the four main members of ‘The Squad’ and how the races are leaning in their respective districts:
AOC – New York’s 14th Congressional District
Republican candidate Tina Forte is taking on the grand challenge of trying to oust the most famous squad member – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
It isn’t likely that AOC is going anywhere in her very safely blue district in New York City, which encompasses the eastern part of The Bronx and an area of north-central Queens.
The 35-year-old congresswoman won her primary this year with 81.1 percent of the vote and is on her way towards a fourth term.
AOC won her seat in Congress in the 2018 election when she earned a commanding 78.2 percent of the vote. Her victory margin has decreased since then, but still remains very large.
The millennial lawmaker won her second term in 2020 with 71.6 percent of the vote and a third in 2022 with 70.6 percent.
There are very unlikely chances of an upset for AOC in November.
Ilhan Omar – Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District
Possibly the second-most recognizable squad member, American-Somali Rep. Ilhan Omar, 42, is facing Republican candidate Dalia al-Aqidi in the general election.
The Minnesota congresswoman became the first to ever wear a hijab on the floor of the U.S. House and was one of the first two Muslim women to be elected to Congress along with fellow squad member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
Omar had a too-close-for-comfort primary run against Democrat Don Samuels this cycle, with approximately 16,000 votes separating the two in their August election.
But the 5th district in Minnesota is by far the most blue in the state with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of Democrat+30, meaning it’s highly unlikely Omar will be ousted by her Republican rival in the November 5 elections. Omar’s district includes Minneapolis, as well as several other cities in the surrounding area.
In her first election to the House in 2018, Omar won with 78.0 percent against Republican Jennifer Zielinski, who earned 21.7 percent.
Omar is the first Somali-American to serve in Congress.
Her family fled Somalia to escape the Civil War and spent four years in a refugee camp in Garissa County, Kenya.
The future congresswoman’s family secured asylum in the U.S., arriving in New York in 1995.
Her family lived for a time in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Arlington, Virginia before moving to and settling in Minneapolis, which she now represents in the House of Representatives.
Omar has faced controversy through her time in Congress for her criticism of Israel.
Like the rest of the squad, Omar is staunchly pro-Palestinian.
Ayanna Pressley – Massachusetts’ 7th Congressional District
Also first elected in the 2018 midterm elections, Pressley won her primary against fellow Democrat Michael Capuano by a 17.2 percent margin.
She ran unopposed in the general election and easily sailed to her first term in the House.
Pressley’s district includes roughly three-fourths of the very liberal Northeastern city of Boston and a few of its northern and southern suburbs, which are also very progressive. There is no sign that the area will flip any time soon.
The congresswoman’s first reelection was easy with no challengers in her primary and then 86.6 percent of people in her district voting for her to get another term.
In 2022, Pressley also didn’t have any primary challengers and easily beat her Republican rival with 84.6 percent.
No one jumped in the primary or general election race this year, so Pressley is well on her way to her fourth term along with the rest of the squad.