Saddam Salim Running For Virginia Senate In New 37th District: Profile

FALLS CHURCH, VA — Democrat Saddam Salim is a 33-year-old federal financial consultant. He's also a candidate running for the 37th District seat in the Virginia Senate. He faces Republican challenger Ken Reid.

Salim defeated incumbent Chap Petersen in the June 20 Democratic Party primary. Petersen represented the old 34th District during the 2023 legislative session.

Election Day is Nov. 7 in Fairfax County, where registered voters will be casting ballots for candidates running for open seats on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and School Board races. In Fairfax County, candidates are running to be chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, sheriff, commonwealth's attorney, and clerk of the court, as well as directors for the Soil and Water Conversation District. Voters will also be choosing who will represent them in the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates.

The first absentee ballots for the General Election will be mailed on Friday, Sept. 22, which is also when early voting begins. Early voting will continue through Nov. 4, which is three days before Election Day.

Related: Ken Reid Running For Virginia Senate In New 37th District: Profile

More information about about how to register to vote, vote early, request an absentee ballot and find your polling place in Fairfax City, Falls Church and Fairfax County is available online.

Patch invited each of the candidates running in the 37th District race to fill out a questionnaire about their campaign. Patch does not edit the responses of candidates to its election questionnaire. The following are Salim's responses.

Name

Saddam Azlan Salim

Position sought

State Senate

Age (at the time of election)

33

Campaign Website

https://www.salimforsenate.com

Family: Names, ages and any pertinent detail you wish to share.

I live with my parents and my brother and sister in Falls Church. My brother recently married and had his first child, my niece. We live in a multi-family household so we can take care of my parents and also support my brother as his family grows.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

None of my family or relatives work for the state government. I do work as a federal contractor, but we don't have contracts with the state.

Education

Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Public Administration, George Mason University

Occupation - Please include years of experience

Federal Financial Consultant, 7 years experience

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

N/A

Why are you seeking elective office?

I think my story illustrates a lot of why I’m running - as an immigrant from Bangladesh, whose family came here after climate catastrophes in the late 1990s, we were evicted and made homeless so our home could be turned into luxury housing in DC. The affordable housing programs in Fairfax County were what gave us a chance to survive and eventually thrive, and my siblings and I were able to learn English in our incredible public school system. My mother’s life was saved by affordable healthcare programs here also. So, it’s those policies that Democrats champion - affordable housing, public education, affordable healthcare - that brought me here. And as a person who has experienced what climate change is doing to the planet, I also know the urgency of addressing it right here. I am proof that an investment in sound policies that help people and help the environment is worthwhile - we get a return on that investment that really matters.

I am running to ensure that we continue to protect the investments we’ve made in Virginia’s future - and that we continue to have the right priorities moving forward. Republicans are busy trying to distract us by bullying vulnerable people, censoring books in schools, rolling back voting and civil rights and creating division between parents and educators. Meanwhile, we have an underfunded public education system and they have no real solutions for that. People are losing their reproductive rights across the country, which I know from my mother’s experience can be a deadly scenario, and Republicans are perfectly ok with that. The number one killer of children in this country is gun violence, and Republicans are perfectly fine letting that continue. Working families in Virginia need real solutions to these problems, not divisiveness and discord. We need state senators who will fight for gun violence prevention, defend reproductive rights, support our public school system and look forward rather than backwards.

The single most pressing issue facing the Hunter Mill District is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

I said this during the primary and it's the same answer - gun violence prevention. This is the number one killer of children and teens in this country. If it were anything else - a disease or a defective product - that would be a scandal and we would act immediately. There is no reason we shouldn't be acting to do something about this now. Republicans are refusing to take $5 million in funding to implement red flag laws that would make us safer and they refuse to do the things we know would make children safer - like an assault weapons ban, stronger restrictions for gun sales and transfers, more safe storage restrictions, a ban on ghost guns, funding and implementation of red flag laws, and so on. This is what I will be fighting for in Richmond and what I’m fighting for now.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I was raised in this area - I used to ride my bike around Pimmit Hills, I graduated from Falls Church High School, I attended George Mason University just south of the City of Fairfax. This is my community and I will always cherish and fight for it. I share the values of our community, unlike my opponent, who was a strong and early supporter of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and now champions Republicans like Ron DeSantis. I am resolutely pro-choice, I support policies that would not only protect reproductive rights, but expand reproductive healthcare across the Commonwealth. I am also passionately devoted to gun violence prevention and if elected, I will re-introduce legislation for an assault weapons ban. I also intend to advocate for fully funding our public school system and expanding affordable housing in the region - these are the two greatest investments we need to make. I also think my career in finance is an important set of skills I bring to the Senate - we are losing some of our veteran lawmakers who were critical to negotiating the budget and I bring in skills and experience in that area.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)?

This is an open seat after the primary, but I do think the Republicans are failing us with their agenda state-wide. Focusing on dividing parents and educators at the moment when we need to fully fund schools and retain teachers is absolutely the wrong choice. Banning books and bullying LGBTQ students is wrong - just like it was wrong for Trump to bully Muslims and demonize immigrants. I am a Muslim and that's part of why I support the LGBTQ community - I see them as receiving the same harassment and demonization that I've endured myself as a Muslim during the Trump administration. Rolling back reproductive rights and threatening to ban abortion is also the wrong choice - Virginia is currently one of the last states in the South to have abortion access. If we roll that back, people will have nowhere to go. Studies have shown that when you restrict abortion access, maternal mortality goes up by as much as 62%. We already have a maternal mortality crisis among women of color, so to restrict their reproductive options even further is literally deadly. We've got to reject this agenda and let them know we will not roll back the progress we've made.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

I talk a lot about affordable housing, but that's because I know firsthand why it matters. What we need to do is create more affordable units across the region - as a State Senator, I think my role will be to help municipalities and counties get the resources they need to speed up the process for affordable housing permitting and development. I also want to use the bully pulpit of the office to talk to developers, constituents, other legislators and regional leaders about the crisis and what we can do to start turning it around. Housing must also be located near transit hubs so we can ensure that people can get to work, and we need multi-modal transit and the infrastructure to support the transition to electric vehicles. A clean energy economy has to also be a priority we start working to enact - we need to encourage localities to opt-in to the International Energy Construction Code and Net Zero Code options. We need to push back against Republicans' attempt to remove us from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and talk more to our communities about why initiatives like this matter to our future.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Winning the primary is something I'm proud of - we worked incredibly hard despite being out-raised by a considerable margin, but we knew that the community itself was the greatest resource of this district, so our campaigning was very focused on building those connections. The relationships I established during that process are important to me - I want constituents to feel like I am available and listening to their concerns moving forward. I wasn't given high dollar donations from interest groups or corporations - I relied on small dollar donations from regular people. Those same people helped me reach out to our neighbors by knocking doors and writing postcards. We proved you don't have to have a campaign slush fund to win - you have to connect with people.

I also feel like my current career has given me skills in appropriations and budget work that are an asset to the State Senate. As legislators like Senator Janet Howell and George Barker leave the Senate, we need new leaders coming in who have those skills

The best advice ever shared with me was:

Since the primary, a friend told me to try and find common ground and listen to all sides so that you are making an informed decision that’s best for the district and the Commonwealth. With the complexity of the issues we're facing, a State Senator needs to be able to bring people to the table to work things out, so learning to find that common ground as a basis for dialogue has been an important focus for me.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

We worked very hard in the primary and I will continue to do that. I learned that it's critical to make sure my team is full of great people and that I surround myself with community members so I stay focused on what my district needs. If elected, my office will be a place where constituents matter, our regional partners matter and their voices will be heard.