Senate District 010

Dr. Ghazala Hashmi is an educator and currently serves as the Founding Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETL) at Reynolds Community College. She immigrated to the United States 50 years ago from India. She earned her PhD in English from Emory College before moving to Chesterfield where she has raised her children.

She is an advocate of reproductive rights, renewable energy, and accessible grade school and higher education. Hashmi is vocal about her desire for paid family leave and broadband access for rural communities. If elected, Hashmi would be the first Muslim-American woman in the Virginia state Senate.

Incumbent Republican Senator Glen Sturtevant voted against Medicaid expansion and against raising the minimum wage. As a member of the Courts of Justice committee, he has repeatedly voted against common sense gun violence prevention measures. Senator Sturtevant has introduced legislation to cut taxes for corporations at the expense of working families and repeatedly opposed policies to protect and expand access to abortion.

Ghazala Hashmi is the progressive choice in this race.

Incumbent Democratic Delegate Lee Carter was elected in 2017 as the first Delegate to identify himself as Democratic Socialist. In his first term as a Delegate, Delegate Carter has proven to be a strong supporter of reproductive rights. He opposes discrimination against the LGBTQ community and immigrants. Delegate Carter believes in criminal justice reform and wants more funding for public education, transportation, and expanded access to affordable healthcare. He supports workers’ rights and unions. Delegate Carter also advocates for clean energy.

Ian Lovejoy is Delegate Carter’s Republican opponent. Lovejoy supports market solutions to the health care crisis, and it is not clear that he would protect Medicaid expansion. His website lacks clear positions on key issues like reproductive health care access, increasing the minimum wage, and voting rights.

Delegate Carter is the more progressive choice in this race because of his support of Medicaid expansion, equality, and abortion access.

Democratic candidate Morgan Goodman has a master's degree in environmental and natural resource policy. Her professional experience includes working in the state and federal government and working for nonprofits. She serves on the PTA and as a co-leader for her daughter’s Girl Scout troop.

Goodman is centering her campaign on environmental protection, and she supports protecting and restoring Virginia’s waterways. She has vowed to protect the civil liberties all Virginians by prohibiting discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation, ensuring equal pay for equal work, and making it easier for Virginians to exercise their right to vote. She also supports public schools and raising teacher pay.

Goodman is running against incumbent Republican Delegate Buddy Fowler Jr., who opposed expanding Medicaid for Virginia families. He is also against increasing the minimum wage.

Morgan Goodman is the more progressive choice in this race.

As a former Louisa County teacher and professor at the College of William and Mary, Democratic candidate Juanita Jo Matkins believes all Virginians deserve a fair chance. Matkins has lived in the 56th District for much of her life, educating its young people and serving her community through her church and various volunteer organizations. Her top priorities are increased education funding, healthcare access for all, and access to high-speed internet. She supports a number of progressive priorities including raising teacher pay, expanding affordable access to health care, criminal justice reform, and expanding voting rights.

She is running against incumbent Republican Delegate John McGuire. Delegate McGuire voted to notify ICE when undocumented Virginians are in police custody. He is also anti-choice. His position on other progressive priorities is unclear.

Juanita Jo Matkins is the more progressive choice in this race.

Democratic candidate Tim Hickey is an educator, husband, and father running to represent the people of Virginia's 59th District. Providing quality education for children from Pre-K to college and supporting vocational education for the jobs of the future is a major component of his campaign. Hickey would vote to expand access to quality, affordable health care and increase the minimum wage. He also wants to expand broadband internet to every corner of the district.

Hickey is running against incumbent Republican Delegate Matt Fariss, who was elected in 2011. He is a conservative who opposes abortion access and refuses to support bills to improve the lives of LGBTQ Virginians. Fariss also opposes commonsense gun violence prevention reforms like universal background checks. Fariss voted against expanding Medicaid in Virginia to 400,000 low income individuals.

Tim Hickey is the more progressive choice in this race.

Colette McEachin is a Deputy Prosecutor for the City of Richmond and she has worked in the Richmond Commonwealth Attorney’s office for more than 20 years. She is the wife of U.S. Representative Donald McEachin. They live in Richmond and have three adult children.

McEachin is currently serving as interim Commonwealth’s Attorney. She plans to end cash bail requirements for pretrial release and provide alternatives to incarceration through a diversion program for first-time arrestees charged with non-violent offenses. She also promises to be engaged with the community on all levels and increase diversity with the staff in the Commonwealth Attorney’s office.

There is currently no challenger to McEachin’s bid for office. With her focus on ending cash bail and providing alternatives to incarceration, McEachin is the progressive candidate of choice for the City of Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney.

A native Richmonder and serving as Clerk Of Court since 2014, Ed Jewett has 29 years of experience working in the Richmond Circuit Court Clerk’s Office. Jewett spearheaded modernization efforts at the office by digitizing all court filings and establishing an electronic filing system for attorneys, which has saved taxpayer money and increased public access to court records. He serves on committees throughout Virginia to develop training systems to improve other court systems. Jewett leads a staff of 42 employees that he said reflects the diversity of Richmond.

Due to his experience leading the Richmond Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, Jewett is the progressive candidate of choice for Richmond.