CHICAGO: Former Congressman Marie Newman, one of the most pro-Arab and pro-Palestinian members of Congress, lost re-election last year in part because of her criticism of Israel’s government but also because she fought to protect health care needs and opposed the growing influence of corporate PAC on elections.
Newman was elected to Congress in November 2020, but served only one term representing the 3rd Illinois Congressional District, which a New York Times analysis listed as having one of the largest concentrations of Palestinian and Arab voters.
In an interview with Arab News, Newman said that “some leaders” of the Democratic Party establishment targeted her in redistricting, forcing her to face-off with a more senior congressional incumbent, Sean Casten, in the newly drawn 6th District, which diluted Palestinian, Arab and Muslim voter support.
“The district changed dramatically. Over 60 percent of the district was taken away from me, meaning that we were left with 40 percent . . . there was the typical Illinois politics shenanigans that always go on but you can’t cry in your beer about it. You have to live with that. And I think it was that I was outspoken on a few topics, and these are topics the party establishment does not like in general, in the nation,” Newman said, noting that 20 to 25 percent of the former 3rd District was Arab, Muslim and South Asian.
In this November 12, 2020 photo, then Representative-elect Marie Newman arrives at Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. for an orientation. (Getty Images/AFP/File)
“I was very, very outspoken on no corporate PAC money, and no corporate money and no corporate influence, and that made the party establishment very angry. I was also very outspoken on Medicare for all. The reason we don’t have Medicare for all is that our politicians accept money from health care and pharma, and all things attached to those topics. Another area I was very outspoken on was humanitarian rights, among those in my district. There was a preponderance of folks who felt very strongly. And I might add it wasn’t just Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Americans and South Asian Americans who felt strongly on that topic.”
During her single two-year term in office, Newman introduced many bills supporting the Palestinian and Arab American community and co-sponsored several that were critical of Israel’s government.
Newman co-led the fight with Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan to put a spotlight on Israel’s home demolitions and evictions of Palestinians from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in May 2021, which was signed by nearly 30 members of Congress.
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