House District 056

Incumbent Senator Jennifer McClellan is a Democrat who grew up in Petersburg. She serves on the board for both the YWCA of Richmond and the Richmond NAACP. She is also on the board of the Children’s Museum of Richmond and the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood.

Senator McClellan was elected in 2017 and is the only Senator that has been pregnant while in office. Prior to her election, she served in the Virginia House of Delegates for 11 years. She has proven herself to a pro-choice champion, sponsoring multiple bills to protect and expand reproductive rights. She has voted to raise the minimum wage and to increase teacher salaries. Senator McClellan also voted to expand Medicaid in Virginia and fought to put protections for breast feeding into state law.

Her opponent, Libertarian Mark Lewis, advocates for eliminating the minimum wage and expanding access to guns. He would repeal Medicaid expansion and supports school voucher schemes.

Senator Jennifer McClellan is the progressive choice in this race.

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.

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.