US mid-term polls: Who are Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib?

Washington, Nov 7: Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib and Somali-American Ilhan Omar have become the first Muslim women elected to US Congress.

Rashida Tlaib took Michigan's 13th congressional district in a race in which she was the sole major party candidate. Ilhan Omar won Minnesota's strongly Democratic fifth congressional district, replacing the first Muslim congressman, Keith Ellison, who vacated his seat to run in the state's attorney general race.

US Congress

According to reports, the Democrats have taken the House of Representatives in a blow to President Donald Trump, but the Republicans will hold the Senate with midterms voter turnout high. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election as well as 35 of the 100 Senate seats. There were also Governor races in 36 states. Pic Courtesy: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members

Who is Rashida Harbi Tlaib?

Rashida Harbi Tlaib was born on July 24, 1976. She is an American politician and attorney. She is a Democratic former member of the Michigan House of Representatives. Until term-limited out, she represented the 6th District, which is in Southwest Detroit and stretches from an area just south of Downtown to the city's southern border, and west to the city of Dearborn. Upon taking office on January 1, 2009, Tlaib became the first Muslim American woman to serve in the Michigan Legislature, and the second Muslim woman in history to be elected to any U.S. state legislature. Courtesy: @RashidaTlaib

Who is Ilhan Omar?

Ilhan Omar is a Somali-American politician from Minnesota. In 2016, she was elected a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, making her the first Somali-American legislator elected to office in the United States. She is the Director of Policy and Initiatives of the Women Organizing Women Network. Omar is the Democratic Farmer Labor nominee for U.S. Representative in Minnesota's 5th congressional district, having won the primary on August 14, 2018. Courtesy: @IlhanMN

Two years ago, she became the first Somali-American to win a seat in a state legislature, on the same night Republican Donald Trump won the presidency after a campaign in which he called for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States.