Chicago City Wire

Abdelnasser Rashid, a Democratic candidate for Cook County Board of Review, should apologize and abandon his campaign after boasting of the appearance of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) as the headliner at his upcoming political fundraiser, according to Chris Robling, a Chicago-based political strategist.

“Embracing an unrepentant anti-Semite shows Abdelnasser Rashid is hopelessly unqualified for any position of public trust,” Robling told Chicago City Wire. “He’s ignorant and profoundly offensive."

 Tlaib is a member of the “Squad,” a far-left group of freshmen congresswomen, and has made headlines for anti-Semitic remarks and associations with anti-Semitic groups, Robling said..

Tlaib and Rashid | Invitation to fundraiser

“Embracing an unrepentant anti-Semite shows Abdelnasser Rashid is hopelessly unqualified for any position of public trust,” Robling said. “He’s ignorant and profoundly offensive." 

An invitation to Rashid’s March 1 fundraiser says, “We have some exciting news to share! On Sunday, March 1st, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib will be headlining a fundraiser in support of our campaign.”

The invitation also lists Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-04), Rep. Robin Kelly (D-02), Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-08) & Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-09) as honorary co-chairs of the campaign.

The cost to sponsor the event, a reception and dinner, is $2,500, and the cost to host is $1,000. An individual ticket costs $250.

No location for the fundraiser is listed on the invitation. A person responding to a phone number to call for tickets identified the location as Hickory Hills, but refused to give out the exact address unless the caller bought a ticket.

Back in August, National Review (NR) reported that Tlaib defended an aborted plan to travel to Israel and Palestine “sponsored by a notoriously anti-Semitic group.”

The group sponsoring the trip, Miftah, published an article in 2013 on its website endorsing an ancient anti-Semitic trope that accuses ‘Jews [of using] the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover,’”

NR reported thatTlaib argued “that criticisms of the organization were intended to serve as a ‘distraction’ from Israeli human-rights abuses committed against Palestinians.”

“The group subsequently apologized for the post,” the NR story said, “but it has issued no such apology for the numerous articles in which its contributors praise suicide bombers who have killed scores of civilians as legitimate combatants in a war for Palestinian rights.”

On his campaign website,  Rashid, 30, who is from Justice, says that he “is an independent Democrat running for Cook County Board of Review because working and middle class families continue to face a broken property tax system. He has spent his career finding solutions for families and taxpayers.”

The Better Government Association reported that in 2017 the salary of Nicholas Jordan, First Assistant Commissioner of the three-member board, was $139,512.