Video: Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi Explains Why It’s Crucial for “Saving Our Democracy” That Virginians Pass the Redistricting Amendment

From this past Friday’s Network NOVA Power Lunch, see below for video of an excellent summary by Virginia Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi about why the redistricting amendment is so important, why we need to pass it, what we’re up against with the wildly dishonest messaging coming from the “NO” campaign, etc.

“I’ve been focused over the last two weeks on making sure that we are delivering a strong message to Virginia’s voters about how critical  this referendum is. And we are fighting a lot of misinformation and frankly dishonest kinds of messaging that’s coming out from the other side. I think we’ve all seen those terrible mailers that are using the image and likeness of Gov. Spanberger and Barack Obama urging voters to vote no.  And that is completely false. I know we’ve got legal action that is taking place to stop those people who are disseminating false ads. But the real message for us to deliver is the fact that this is not just a vote on redistricting. It is in fact a vote for our entire country. It is a vote on issues that impact every single Virginian.

And I’ll just share one important connection. You know, just yesterday I was with a group of um strong Virginia supporters. We were talking about the constitutional amendment for reproductive health care which will be coming to Virginians’ ballots in November. But we can’t disassociate the work on this referendum, the redistricting referendum, from all the other constitutional amendments that we’re focused on: reproductive health care, voting rights and marriage equality are the three that will be coming in November. We stand to lose everything if we are not going to fight back – and that’s what Virginians have the opportunity to do.

You know, Donald Trump as soon as he came into office, he demanded that Republican governors and Republican state legislatures turn over Congress to him. That was his clear and very public demand. And so many states like Texas, Missouri, Louisiana, the list goes on and on, have already capitulated to Trump’s demands. And so we have a choice. Do we let it be a Trump Congress that comes into office in the midterms or do we actually fight back and ensure that we have people who are going to fight on behalf of Virginians, fight on behalf of Americans? So the choice is pretty crystal clear, and we need to make sure Virginians understand this is not about simply drawing lines; it is more importantly about saving our democracy. And the ballot measure is very clear in its language. This is a temporary measure to stop a very horrific crisis that we are facing here in this country.”