A few minutes ago, Virginia Democratic Lt. Governor nominee Ghazala Hashmi was on WAMU’s The Politics Hour, demonstrating why she’ll make a superb Lt. Governor – and why her far-right-Republican opponent, John Reid, would most definitely NOT make a superb (or even semi-acceptable) Lt. Governor. See below for some audio and highlights from Ghazala Hashmi’s interview. Also, for some background on John Reid, see “Covid tyranny,” “Social Justice’ is about modern racial revenge”; “mental insanity of trans ideology”; “guns save lives”; virulently anti-abortion; etc: Meet the Latest VA GOP Lt. Gov. Candidate; Video: VA GOP 2025 Lt. Gov. Nominee John Reid Says 300,000 Virginians Losing Health Care Is “Not My Immediate Problem” , Arlington Dems: “The Republican Lt. Governor nominee in Virginia is justifying the murder of George Floyd” (who was asphyxiated to death in cold blood 5 years ago), On talk show, John Reid said patients coming to Virginia for abortions is like slave trade, etc, etc., etc.
With that, see below for highlights and video from Sen. Hashmi’s interview today on WAMU’s “The Politics Hour” show.
- In the following clip, Ghazala Hashmi said John Reid “has aligned himself to Donald Trump and to MAGA extremism; he has actually called access to abortion and reproductive care…he has linked it to slavery. He wants to defund our public schools, just as Donald Trump is trying to do…”
- On not having any LG debates scheduled, Hashmi said: “I don’t find John Reid to be a credible opponent in that regard [as someone who has serious conversations about the issues impacting Virginians]; he hasn’t actually articulated on the issues that really matter to Virginians…It’s much more valuable for me to be talking to voters directly.”
- In this clip, Ghazala Hashmi talked about her many years teaching community college students – representing all of Virginian, as well as her focus on improving education access and opportunity, improving healthcare services for all Virginians, working on housing affordability issues, and thinking through in a thoughtful approach our approach to economic development…that’s what I’m committed to doing…I do reject ideological labels…as a college professor…we were exploring the ideals of America, of this country through its literary texts…”
- In this clip, Ghazala Hashmi pointed out, correctly, that John Reid “has supported that Big Ugly Bill…he has also pointed out his advocacy for defunding and destroying public education…That’s what’s at stake…we need someone who’s got a proven record for fighting on healthcare and education and proven experience in the [legislature], that’s what I’m bringing…”
- In this clip, Ghazala Hashmi made clear that it’s REPUBLICANS who “put us in this position, unfortunately, by passing the Big Ugly Bill in the first place…The loss of 1000s of federal jobs has impacted so many families across the Commonwealth…this is having a ripple account across Virginia, and we have to hold accountable…we’re going to see tremendous harm and ripple effects all across the country.”
- Finally, in this clip, Ghazala Hashmi said she’s the “mom of two daughters who went through public education in Virginia and who really benefited from public education.” She added that Youngkin has a “completely failed record on education…he’s on his third [superintendent of education]; and there’s never been a coherent mission on purpose or focus on learning outcomes…families want us to talk about reading, writing and arithmetic…learning outcomes…that their children are going to be in a position to compete in an increasingly competitive global economy, that they have the requisite skills to get jobs.”
- Asked about the federal government trying to force Virginia school divisions to change their gender policies, Ghazala Hashmi said “these are issues that are attempting to distract us from the real mission of our schools, and that is to focus on student learning, and I refuse to be distracted…We are very clear in Virginia that we have local authority over our school districts, and I trust our local school boards, our local school administration to be making the decisions that are best for their communities. We have never seen this kind of federal reach into our local [school] divisions. And the intrusive manner in which we’ve seen the Youngkin administration try to dictate local policy is not the direction that we go in, according to the code we have and according to what Virginia’s families want.”
