United States | News & Politics

Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib defeated her Republican opponent in Michigan's 12th congressional district election on Tuesday, securing a fourth term as the only Palestinian-American woman in the US Congress.

The Associated Press called the race with just 18 percent of the votes counted.

Tlaib secured 77 percent of the vote, defeating the Republican Party's James Hooper who received just 19 percent of the vote.

Her victory comes amid the backdrop of Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians so far and has been diplomatically and militarily supported by the Biden-Harris administration for more than a year.

Tlaib has been a vocal critic of the war, calling for the US to withhold weapons from Israel. Her opposition to the war on Gaza and support for pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses have drawn harsh criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.