U.S. Rep Rashida Tlaib, the outspoken Detroit Democrat from the 12th Congressional District who was first elected to Congress in 2018, is known for many things in her political career. But one thing Tlaib will forever be remembered for, most among her supporters and critics alike, is the fact that she refused to endorse former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election over the war in Gaza.
Unsatisfied with the actions of then-President Joe Biden regarding the war, Tlaib and her acolytes inspired and urged Democrats to vote “uncommitted” during the presidential primary in the state. Donald Trump exploited that fracture within the Democratic Party and visited Dearborn for a rally during the campaign, where he received almost a hero’s welcome.
Harris lost Michigan to Trump. A significant number of Arab American voters supported Trump instead.
But Trump’s election did not give these voters, for the most part, what they wanted. In fact, the president’s draconian immigration policy has Tlaib speaking out forcefully from one press conference to another, condemning them.
For some in the Black community, Tlaib’s action against Harris amounted to self-sabotage as a Democrat. Others see it as a politician who is simply applying a puritanic lens towards anything having to do with the Middle East crisis, including Gaza, and refusing to compromise.
Because of that, there has been a lot of talk in the past year among Black political operatives about how to unseat her. Perhaps to them, her greatest political sin is abandoning Harris during a contentious race for the presidency. It is even more disconcerting because Harris was running as the first Black woman ever to win a major party nomination, and Tlaib was voted into Congress because of a majority of Black Detroiters who backed her candidacy.
Inkster Mayor Byron Nolen told me, “Frankly, we deserve better leadership in the 12th Congressional District. I was deeply disappointed when our current representative chose to support the uncommitted movement which discouraged people from voting for the Democratic presidential candidate over Biden’s Israel policy. Which has been essentially every president’s policy on Israel since 1980. To me, that was a failure of leadership.”
Nolen is challenging Tlaib in the Democratic primary. Given how President Trump’s policies are hurting communities of color, Nolen does have a chance if he can raise the money and run an effective campaign that spotlights how Tlaib failed to back Harris when Democrats were coalescing around her.
But it won’t be an easy battle. As an incumbent, Tlaib is well-funded and knows how to conduct a grassroots campaign. She knows how to talk to voters and understands that politics is like an art, and the ability to win over people depends on what kind of picture you draw for them. Other better-known names in Detroit political circles have gone up against her in the past and did not succeed because they didn’t have the fundraising tentacles to promote a direct and targeted message to voters in her district, making it all the more challenging for Nolen.
Tlaib said in her recent re-election announcement: “I’m honored to have the opportunity to run for re-election to represent and serve the incredible residents of the 12th Congressional District. My team and I have worked hard to deliver one of the most effective constituent service programs in the country to address the needs of everyday people and make sure our residents’ voices drive our transformative legislative agenda in the People’s House.”
Despite the legislative accomplishments she is touting, Nolen believes the damage was already done when Tlaib told her supporters to vote “uncommitted,” which created a chasm that inadvertently favored Trump.
“When you tell people not to vote for the Democratic candidate, you are functionally supporting the Republican, and in this case, that was Donald Trump. We knew exactly what Trump would do because he’d done it before, and Project 2025 spelled out the rest in writing,” Nolen says. “And now here we are at war with Iran without congressional approval, national guard deployments in American cities, tariffs driving up the cost of everyday goods, the destruction of alliances we spent decades building, and ICE terrorizing both undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens alike, resulting in the deaths of three American citizens in Minneapolis.”
He added, “Anyone who helped Donald J. Trump win the state of Michigan, and ultimately the presidency of the U.S. should not represent Michigan’s 12th Congressional District.”
It’s easier said than done. If Nolen wants to deny Tlaib another term in Congress, he will have to take the fight directly to her by talking to every Democratic household in the district, including the many who didn’t know that she didn’t back Harris for the presidency.
X (formerly Twitter): @BankoleDetNews
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Bankole Thompson’s columns appear on Mondays and Thursdays in The Detroit News.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Thompson: Unseating Tlaib won’t be a cakewalk for Inkster mayor
Reporting by Bankole Thompson / The Detroit News
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