Students Host Town Hall With Va. Senate Contender Ghazala Hashmi

By Imani Thaniel
Capital News Service

RICHMOND -- With Election Day on the horizon, two student organizations at Virginia Commonwealth University hosted Ghazala Hashmi on Friday to discuss her initiatives and encourage the youth vote in the upcoming election.

“[My goal] has always been the success of students, and if I move into the legislative capacity, building consensus through conversation and collaboration is an essential skill set that I can bring to the General Assembly,” said Hashmi, who is running for the 10th District Senate seat against incumbent Glen Sturtevant, R-Richmond.

The Young Democrats at VCU and NextGen VCU hosted the event. The event was free to the public and students wrote down questions to ask Hashmi. Just over a dozen students attended the hour-long event.

NextGen came to VCU in 2017 and most of their work revolves around registering students to vote. This year, their goal is to “help candidate Hashmi flip the 10th District successfully,” said president of NextGen VCU Safa Eltaib.

“This year we focused a lot on -- even though it’s an off-season year -- getting all the new students and transfer students educated on their right to vote,” Eltaib said.

The 10th District is a competitive race and Eltaib said “it is essential it is flipped blue.” Eltaib said Hashmi has proven she has the values of a progressive candidate.

In September, NextGen held a voter registration drive for VCU students on National Voter Registration Day. NextGen reported that they registered 174 VCU students that day. According to Eltaib, NextGen has registered over 1,200 VCU students this semester.

During the town hall, Hashmi said her campaign platforms are education, gun safety and women’s reproductive rights in the state and in the district. She also fielded questions on rising tuition costs, climate change, high eviction rates and school vouchers.

Hashmi, a former college professor and administrator at Reynolds Community College in Henrico County, said education was a driving force that led her to run for office. If elected, she plans to raise funding for public schools throughout Virginia.

“Funding in public schools is essential … our state budget needs to reflect what our values are,” Hashmi said.

In May, 12 people were killed in a mass shooting at a municipal building in Virginia Beach. Following that shooting, the Virginia General Assembly met in July for a special session that ended with no bills considered. During the legislative session, hundreds of gun control activists and gun rights protesters gathered outside the Capitol. Hashmi said she attended and advocated for stricter gun laws.

“We simply asked our lawmakers to do their responsibility, to engage in discussion and to make sure they were addressing the concerns of the public, and within 90 minutes they took one vote, and that was the vote to adjourn,” Hashmi said.

She also suggested her own solutions for gun safety, such as implementing universal background checks, the process of having private gun dealers run the same background check as licensed gun dealers. She also said she would push for legislation to ban assault rifles and make sure Virginia has red flag laws, state laws that give courts and law enforcement the right to remove guns from some people considered a risk to themselves or others.

Lastly, Hashmi said one of her main goals is to make sure Virginia continues to protect women’s reproductive rights.

Hashmi said she is fearful that if Virginia is not flipped blue, state Republicans will challenge current abortion laws, which allow women to have an abortion up to 25 weeks pregnant, with conditions.

“I am fully committed to ensuring that we don’t continue to lose ground of what we achieved in Roe v. Wade and that we continue to protect the rights of women,” Hashmi said.

In September, Hashmi was one of the top three fundraisers among state Senate candidates. She received a total of $645,444 in cash and in-kind donations, to her opponents $289,075 total.

Overall in September, Democrats running for Senate seats outraised Republicans, $4.9 million to $2 million. In the House, Democrats outraised Republicans, $7.1 million to a little over $4 million.
On Nov. 2, Hashmi will join Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-Prince William, and Larry Barnett, a Democrat running for House District 27, for a Canvass of Equality launch in Midlothian. The event is by the organization Fund for Equality, which runs canvass offices on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign to help promote equal rights for the LGBTQ community.