JAHD KHALIL: Senator Hashmi, thank you for joining us.

Could you just introduce yourself and tell us why you should be lieutenant governor?

GHAZALA HASHMI: Thank you so much, I'm really delighted to be here.

I'm Ghazala Hashmi, I'm state senator for the Richmond area, and I am the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor.

You know, after spending six years in the Virginia Senate I'm ready to be president of the Senate.

The lieutenant governor presides over the chamber, has a critical role to play.

It's really important that we elect a lieutenant governor who has established relationships, not just within the Senate chamber, but also with the House, and has a knowledge of state policy of state agencies and how we do the work of legislating in the, in the General Assembly.

And I'm ready to take on that role.

JAHD KHALIL: How would you use the office and how would you work with whatever the administration is in the governor's office outside of your official powers?

GHAZALA HASHMI: Technically, by code, the lieutenant governor's role is defined as a part-time position, but I intend to serve in a full-time capacity, just as I've done now for six years in the Virginia General Assembly.

As lieutenant governor, I will continue to be a full-time public servant.

And what I see my role as, when we're not in session, is an opportunity to be on the ground talking to Virginians in all walks of life, talking to our business and industry partners, talking to community members, understanding what the issues are all throughout the commonwealth.

I plan to be traveling quite a bit, in the same way that I've been doing on my campaign trail, meeting with folks where they are at, hearing their concerns and then bringing those issues back to Richmond.

JAHD KHALIL: If we end up in a situation where Lt. Gov.

Winsome Earle-Sears ends up winning the governorship, do you see your role as lieutenant governor being different in any way than if Rep. Spanberger, the Democratic nominee, ends up winning?

GHAZALA HASHMI: There are some critical policy issues that we have to address, regardless of party affiliation.

As we know, Virginians are going to be impacted significantly by the Medicaid cuts that have been proposed in the congressional bill, H.R.1.

We know that education is such an important priority for all Virginians families.

We know that economic development has to continue to happen at a strong pace, so that every community has the opportunity for growth, for resilience and for increased capacity for jobs and those are going to continue to be my focus points.

And I would work closely with our General Assembly to make sure that we are advancing legislation that addresses those issues.

JAHD KHALIL: You mentioned education.

And on the other side of the aisle, you know, parent involvement in education and healthcare is seen as a high priority for them.

How do you see that issue when it comes to, you know, gender in schools or healthcare for young people and that sort of thing?

GHAZALA HASHMI: Well, parents have always been involved in education and I think it was a complete misdirection of public attention when we saw this governor advance the idea that we're trying to keep parents out of engagement.

In fact, as an educator, I know we've worked hard to get more parents involved in the education process.

Having that critical partnership between schools, and teachers and the parents builds that community.

That's the way in which we advance strong and resilient young people because they know that the adults, when they're involved, really care about them.

And so parental engagement is always critically important.

And I know that so many schools are always asking for more parents to be volunteers, to be in the classroom, to be working side-by-side with teachers.

I know we want to continue to encourage that relationship and opportunity.

When we have parents who care and are engaged and able to build that community, they see what's actually happening in schools.

You know, our educators are focused on ensuring that children learn how to read, write, do math.

Those are the core priorities.

And I know every teacher I talk to wants to continue the work for which they've been trained.

JAHD KHALIL: You use the word parental engagement.

I think on the other side, they're using, more of a language of consent and, like, you know... kind of, you know, like, maybe acceding to certain things that are in schools or rejecting that.

How do you see that difference or if there is any?

GHAZALA HASHMI: Well, so many of our schools have the parental involvement through volunteer activities and also through parent-teacher relationships.

Our PTAs are so involved in a lot of those kinds of discussions and efforts.

And, that is something we want to foster and nurture and continue.

The leadership of our PTA organizations has always been critical.

And so much of great importance to what happens in our education settings.

And I think we would certainly see that being nurtured and supported in the next administration.

JAHD KHALIL: Virginia has a law that's commonly known as the, you know so-called right to work law.

And it, you know... kind of a short summary is that it makes it illegal to require joining a union or paying union dues to work at certain companies that have union representation or certain agreements.

This is also a law that makes it a lot harder to organize a union and unions, you know — one of the arguments for them is that they come with a lot of benefits in terms of work conditions and pay and benefits and that sort of thing.

You've expressed that you've like — you'd like to do away with that law, but you're running mate has, kind of, more sided on the side of making reforms.

Do you need to reconcile your two stances, and if so, like, how do you, how would you do that?

GHAZALA HASHMI: Well, any effort around right to work or repealing right to work is going to come through the legislative side.

And the first step would be to see what kind of legislation might be introduced in the upcoming sessions by either a House or a Senate member, or both concurrently.

And once we have legislation in front of us, that gives us an opportunity to evaluate, to have broader discussions, to make sure every voice is represented, that we have stakeholders at the table.

You know, unions have played such a critical and historic role, for centuries at this point, in advancing the protections for workers.

We have labor protections, essential labor protections because of unions.

We have child labor laws in place because of unions.

We have the fight for fair wages because of unions.

And I think everyone in the country can thank unions for the weekends that we enjoy.

So it's taken a lot of effort to make sure that the voices of workers have a place and have the capacity to fight for a just and fair representation.

So when we're talking about economic advancement, when we're talking about building a strong middle class, there is so much dependency on the work of unions, on organized labor to actually fight for those issues of economic equity and justice and advancing the cause for working families all across the country and certainly here in Virginia.

JAHD KHALIL: One other issue that's going to be facing the next administration is energy.

Data centers are requiring a lot more power.

That could drive up power bills for Virginians.

Affordability is a big topic this election.

There's also concern out there that the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which has clean energy requirements for carbon and so forth, would make it maybe harder to build infrastructure to meet the energy goals.

What sort of balance of state strategy versus local control do you think is appropriate for the placement of data centers on one hand, or new power infrastructure or solar farms on the other?

GHAZALA HASHMI: Yeah, you know, that's a really big question that we are already working to try to respond in terms of legislation.

And also it's going to be a critical and ongoing effort.

The fact of the matter is that the Virginia Clean Economy Act is a part of the Virginia code.

We passed the VCEA in 2020, and it has put some guidelines and some structures in place about the goals that we have as a commonwealth in achieving zero carbon for our... the health of our climate and the protections against climate change that we are already experiencing for well over a decade now in Virginia.

So making sure that we are addressing and meeting the needs [and] the goals that we established in the VCEA is a priority.

And, yes, we're seeing a considerable uptick and escalation on the demand on our energy needs.

And in large part, much of that demand is coming from the growth of data centers.

Now, we know data centers are a strong economic development opportunity for many localities in Virginia.

It makes sense for data centers to be housed in the Commonwealth, you know, with the flow of information and data that we have on a global scale.

Virginia is positioned geographically in an effective place to be the repository of so much of the traffic that we see — the digital traffic.

But at the same time, we have to balance and we have to understand the kind of impact that we are seeing in this growth on our energy needs, the load on the grid that we are experiencing and anticipate how that demand is going to continue to escalate.

So while much of the permitting and the siting, yes, is in local hands, these are also regional issues.

It's also a statewide issue.

So if we're going to find effective responses to meeting the demand on energy and the cost to our individual ratepayers, we're going to have to take a look at it from a state perspective.

The state has a responsibility to ensure that we can meet the energy needs for all Virginians and that we have a fair and equitable process in terms of who's paying for the global traffic.

Is it fair for Virginians to be carrying that burden for the entire world?

That's a question that we are certainly struggling with.

And so, having a statewide regulatory system in place is probably going to be something that we will be evaluating in this upcoming session and taking a look at what we need to do to be more thoughtful and conscious about the process of of the siting and permitting in Virginia.

JAHD KHALIL: There seems to be some appetite on the Democratic side of the aisle for some tweaks to the Virginia Clean Economy Act.

Do you think that that's something that the administration should be doing in terms of, adjusting the clean energy goals and how Virginians get their energy from what sources?

GHAZALA HASHMI: So I think we need to continue to challenge ourselves.

Virginia has, the capacity to be a real leader throughout the country in terms of how we transition to more renewable energy, energy that doesn't have the impact of carbon emissions on our climate, and lead the way in establishing goals that do challenge us.

And so I think we want to continue in that.

Now, whether we need to make some changes or not that's going to be part of the discussion in the General Assembly.

It's an important conversation to have, you know, we established the VCEA prior to the pandemic.

And what we've seen is COVID put a dent on so much of our economy, on the supply chain on the ability to meet certain timelines.

And so it's good to have those discussions.

But ultimately, at the end of the day, we really don't have a choice in terms of what we want to accomplish in responding to the climate crisis that we have.

As we look around the world, we see climate destruction having an impact, whether it's through flooding, major fires, the change in the rising temperatures.

These are issues and concerns that impact not just Virginians, but they impact the entire human ecosystem, all animal and plant life.

We have to respond to that as effectively as possible, if we're actually going to leave a world for our children and grandchildren.

That's our responsibility.

JAHD KHALIL: If for some reason the next governor can't serve and you were to become governor, what would some of your of your first actions in office be?

GHAZALA HASHMI: It is essential that we have individuals in place who are ready to take on leadership at this most critical time.

You know, we are seeing at the federal level, more efforts to send the work of policymaking of establishing structures and priorities back to the state level.

And for that reason, we have to have strong state level leadership that's ready to take on those challenges, especially in these next four years.

And so we know that our priorities have to be on ensuring that we are protecting Virginians, whether that's protecting healthcare, protecting access to education opportunities and also addressing the issue of rising costs that are impacting so many of our families.

When I'm on the campaign trail, I hear especially about housing, childcare and issues that are just challenging people in their day-to-day lives.

So those are the priorities that I know our next administration will be establishing under Gov.

Spanberger.

Those are the priorities that I would certainly be continuing to focus on.

JAHD KHALIL: Could you go into a little more detail in terms of what's at stake in this, this election?

When it comes to, you know, what's happening here, what's happening in DC and what's happening worldwide?

GHAZALA HASHMI: Sure, you know, I think we're in a historic moment where we have a competing vision, not just about who and what we are as a country, who and what we are as a commonwealth, but also significantly about the role of government.

And we have a vision coming out of Washington that dismantling government means that is a direction that will be good for the country.

But what we've seen instead is chaos, dysfunctionality and a destruction of those essential structures that really do support our communities and our ability to ensure that there is safety and protection and opportunities for everybody.

And as a result of that, it's now incumbent on state leadership to establish those core values of the role of government.

And, I think what we're going to see in Virginia, especially, is an opportunity for us to stand up against the chaos.

You know, we've seen the Trump administration dismantle the US Department of Education, for example, dismantle our research and public health institutions.

We have the potential of a serious crisis.

When I hear our medical professionals and our CDC experts say what a grave crisis point we're at, calling for the resignation of the secretary of Human and Health Services.

Thats a signal that this current administration under Donald Trump is destroying the very fabric that keeps the public safe, and that ensures that we continue as a prosperous and thriving country.

And when we don't have those federal measures in the ways that we've had them in previous generations, it's going to be incumbent on state leadership to pick up that mantle and ensure that we can keep moving forward in the face of this historic crisis.