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Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib Will Become the First Muslim Women in Congress

Photo credit: Twitter/@RashidaTlaib
Photo credit: Twitter/@RashidaTlaib

From Cosmopolitan

Update, 11/6, 9:40 P.M.: Ilhan Omar won her midterm election in Minnesota's 5th congressional district, and she will join Rashida Tlaib as the first Muslim-American women in Congress. She will also became the first Somali-American in Congress.

Omar was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2016, and she became the first Somali-American ever elected to state legislature.

Original, 11/6, 9:20 P.M.: Rashida Tlaib has officially won her midterm election, running unopposed in Michigan's 13th congressional district, making her the first Muslim-American woman to ever be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Tlaib, a single mother and the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, was also the first Muslim woman to be elected to Michigan's Legislature, where she served from 2008 to 2014. She's also worked as an attorney at the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice.

Back in August, Tlaib told ELLE.com about a time during her campaign when a young Muslim woman came up to her, saying she had to win to prove Muslims belong. "That's when I felt the pressure," Tlaib said. "That 'you have to win' because if you win, our children will know that being themselves, being who they are, that they can succeed. That whatever the President is saying, that whatever the people that support the President are saying, everything that's happening against Muslims in our country, it is all not going to be this complete darkness. That there is light. And I think for me to win, the success of this campaign... it brought a light in a moment of darkness for many of us."

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