PFAW Member,
First: PFAW-endorsed Virginia state Senate candidate Qasim Rashid, who is Muslim, faced an Islamophobic smear campaign by his Democratic primary opponent – PFAW members, both in Virginia and across the country, spoke out and chipped in to help Qasim overcome those bigoted attacks and he won the primary election.
Then: The right-wing Republican incumbent in the seat Qasim is running for, state Sen. Richard Stuart, pledged to run a positive and clean issues-based campaign.
But NOW: Stuart is running Islamophobic, race-baiting online ads that try to tie Qasim to “Islamic terrorism,” with a series of ads accusing Qasim of being “radical” and one of the ads stating, “Qasim Rashid doesn’t believe Islamic terrorism exists.”
And now we need to step up AGAIN to make sure Virginia voters reject racism and religious bigotry in this campaign!
Will you rush an emergency donation to Qasim right now via ActBlue to help him fight back?
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100% of your donation will go to Qasim Rashid's campaign for state Senate.
We only need to flip TWO SEATS to change majority control of the Virginia state Senate from Republican to Democrat.
So if we can join together and make Republican Richard Stuart’s racist and dishonest smear tactics backfire with a surge of grassroots support to Qasim’s campaign, we can FLIP this Republican Senate seat from red to blue and FLIP the Virginia Senate!
Republican Richard Stuart has voted to expand access to guns and to restrict funding for abortions and family planning services. He also voted against ratifying the ERA, against raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and against expanding Medicaid.
But our candidate, human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid, is a progressive fighter who is running to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, expand health care access for Virginians, and improve worker protections and strengthen unions. He is a champion for voting rights, supports ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, and is ready to fight for common-sense reforms to address gun violence.
Qasim is also rejecting campaign contributions from corporations and the state’s largest electric utilities to focus on small dollar donations from individuals – including hundreds of PFAW members.
Qasim's grassroots campaign has already raised more money from small donors than any other state Senate candidate in Virginia, according to Virginia Public Access Project, with 65% of his campaign contributions coming from donors who’ve contributed $100 or less.
But Republican Richard Stuart, who is attacking Qasim with racist, Islamophobic ads, has a massive Big Money advantage, with nearly half of his campaign contributions from Big Business in 2019, including Dominion Energy, Appalachian Power, Verizon, Altria and Capital One... So we need to fight back with even more grassroots support!
Thank you so much for stepping up, and for all you do.
-- Lizet Ocampo, Political Director
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