When Hala’s son was born, her job at the time offered no health insurance. When her newborn son experienced health complications, Hala was able to get care through Medicaid — and it saved his life. That’s why she’s fighting for access to affordable healthcare for all Virginians. 

In 2018, Hala made good on her campaign promise as a deciding vote in the House of Delegates to expand Medicaid to more than 700,000 Virginians and stood up against Republican attempts to repeal protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Hala was so proud to stand with Governor Northam, activists, and her colleagues during this historic moment.

That’s why Hala co-authored legislation to expand our Commonwealth’s vaccine capacity, cap the price of insulin and inhalers at $50, expand access to telehealth, and provide transparency in prescription drug costs.

We have made great strides in providing healthcare for Virginians, but there is still so much work to be done. As a State Senator, Hala will ensure Medicaid funding is continued and work to expand access to coverage for all communities. She will also work with the Federal Government to increase subsidies and lower premiums, and work to lower the cost of prescription drugs because no family should be one sickness away from bankruptcy.

Hala knows firsthand how thin that bridge is between struggle and success for so many Virginians. After her family struggled to make ends meet when she was a child, and working at a gas station when her own first child was born, she was able to build a successful career with just a few college credits and a government certification training, working in national security as a cyber specialist under the Department of Homeland Security.

As Virginia charges ahead into the 21st century, we need to invest in building and training our workforce to make sure our citizens have the skills they need to be successful no matter the color of their skin or gender. Hala’s successful career in one of the sectors leading Virginia’s economy into the future makes her uniquely qualified to oversee this transition as a member of the State Senate. 

When Hala’s son was born, he had severe health issues that required intensive care, and she did not have access to paid leave through her job at the gas station. Having access to paid family and medical leave would have been life-changing. That is why Hala authored the paid family and medical legislation, which would provide every Virginian worker with 12 weeks of paid leave for major events such as an adoption or childbirth. A majority of small business owners backed her legislation because they know that this would help their workers and their bottom lines.

We need to focus on an inclusive economy that ensures every Virginian can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. The cost of living is rising here in Virginia, and our minimum wage needs to keep up. Furthermore, our Commonwealth needs to invest in affordable housing and combat the economic factors that price families out of neighborhoods they’ve lived in for generations. 

Hala’s son is a member of the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union and works at a local grocery store, and as a Delegate, Hala introduced a bill mandating hazard pay for essential workers to ensure they get the support they needed during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

As a State Senator, Hala will lead the recovery to make sure Virginians can return to work safely and provide small business owners with the support they need to recover.

Hala grew up attending Prince William public schools and is the former president of her local parent-teacher organization. She graduated from Woodbridge High, where her kids also attended. 

As Delegate, Hala has strengthened our schools and helped our teachers and administrators to ensure our children are getting the best education possible. In the General Assembly, she authored legislation to increase funding for special education students, like her son, and give teachers a well-deserved pay raise to ensure the best talent can remain in the Commonwealth.

Schools are the building blocks to success for Virginia’s future, and it is clear we need to focus our energy on giving our teachers and students the tools they need. We need to give our teachers resources to work with students who have a range of needs, and we need to retain and recruit the best teachers we can.

In the General Assembly, Hala co-authored legislation to establish Governor Northam’s G3 program–Get Skilled, Get a Job, and Give Back. This program provides 2 years of free community for students who train in high demand professions like information technology and medicine. Right now we have thousands of unfilled, high-paying jobs in Northern Virginia. The G3 program will create a pipeline to fill these positions and ensure equity in our education system. As State Senator, Hala will support an expansion of this program as well as increased funding for apprenticeship and internship programs, as well as career and technical education certificates. We need to increase funding for these programs throughout the state to show that successful career paths come in many different routes.

As a State Senator, Hala will focus heavily on our education system. She will work with her colleagues in the General Assembly to expand Pre-K, reduce overcrowding in classrooms, and invest in school infrastructure.

Hala also understands that every families’ path to prosperity looks different. In 2013, she completed her college degree online, leveraging tuition assistance from her employer, while working full time — so she knows from personal experience how challenging it can be to get a college degree, and the financial barriers that make this unrealistic for so many Virginians. As State Senator, Hala will support measures to make college more affordable for all Virginians as well as lead the charge to create and improve training programs for those who choose not to attend a four-year college.

Hala has spent almost a decade as a women’s rights activist. She helped organize Virginia’s participation in the Women’s March after Donald Trump’s election and founded the Prince William chapter of the National Organization for Women. In 2020, she was the Chief co-author on the bill that made Virginia the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to help enshrine women’s equality into the U.S. Constitution. 

While we have made great strides in creating a more equitable Virginia for women, there is much work to be done, especially for Black and Brown women. That’s why Hala introduced a bill to help address fetal and infant mortality rates throughout the Commonwealth, with a focus on racial disparities. She also is fighting for paid family leave, because no one should worry about what happens to their job if they need to care for a loved one or newborn baby.

As a State Senator, Hala will continue to fight for women’s health care. She will work to expand access to birth control and contraception, and defend a woman’s right to choose. Furthermore, she will support policies and legislation that will create equity in the workplace and ensure equal pay for equal work, so women who work the same job as men can earn the same living.

As a single mom who commuted over two, and sometimes three, hours everyday to work for years, Hala understands firsthand the balancing act so many families in Virginia face when it comes to getting to work and caring for their families. 

In the House of Delegates, Hala worked to increase funding for the Virginia Railway Express (VRE) and Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission (PRTC) so commuters would have viable alternative transportation options. 

However, this daily disruption extends past the D.C Metro area and Northern Virginia. Across Virginia, our aging infrastructure makes it harder for our citizens to prosper. We need to invest in our Commonwealth and address infrastructure needs in rural, suburban, and urban communities.

Hala recognizes this is a quality of life issue for so many Virginians and that is why as a State Senator she will continue to work to expand and improve public transportation, and invest in rebuilding our historic bridges, roads, and highways. 

Investing in infrastructure also requires a digital component. As we saw during COVID-19, internet access has become a necessity for so many occupations, and especially K-12 schooling, and it must be accessible to all Virginians. As a member of the Senate, Hala will be focused on bridging the digital divide in our state that affects so many Virginians. Broadband access is a matter of equity and as a cybersecurity expert, Hala is uniquely positioned to lay the foundation for extensive and scalable broadband access.

Hala is a woman of color and the mother of two Black children and is acutely aware of the painful systemic racism and injustices that have plagued our justice system for centuries.

In 2020, Hala worked with her colleagues in the Black Caucus to present an aggressive legislative agenda addressing criminal justice reform in the Commonwealth. This includes banning no knock warrants, creating civilian review boards, establishing a statewide code of conduct for police officers, and mandating racial bias, de-escalation, and crisis intervention training for police. We need reforms to ensure accountability and transparency and to prevent uses of excessive force that have led to the unjustified deaths of Black and Brown men, women, and children. To move forward as a Commonwealth, we must reform our justice system, create alternatives to the school to prison pipeline.

There is a lot of work to do to heal the wounds that still exist in our Commonwealth from the legacy of slavery and the violence that Black and Brown Americans experience every day. As a State Senator, Hala will lead the way on these reforms and use her national security background to make sure every community is safe and help our communities begin to heal.

As a lifelong Virginian, Hala has a deep appreciation for the diverse geography and wildlife of the Commonwealth. From the Chesapeake Bay to the Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia is home to some of the most beautiful sights in the nation. With over 60 state and national parks, our natural resources are the pride and joy of our Commonwealth. 

But climate change poses a real threat to our waterways and mountains, our public health, and our way of life. Flooding and coastal erosion threatens our homeowners and small businesses and one bad storm could wipe out someone’s life savings. Furthermore, the effects of climate change disproportionately affect Black and Brown communities and in addressing environmental matters, we need to view them through a racial equity lens. 

Climate change is also a national security threat. Virginia is home to 27 military bases, many of them coastal. We cannot leave the fate of our military to rising sea levels.

In the House of Delegates, Hala worked closely with environmental activists and stakeholders to codify Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), bringing millions of dollars to the Commonwealth for coastal resiliency and to combat climate change. She also was a co-author on the Virginia Clean Economy Act. This landmark environmental legislation will create nearly 13,000 jobs per year in Virginia’s Advanced Energy economy, eliminate all harmful carbon emissions from Virginia utilities by 2050, and expand access to solar and wind energy. 

We must act quickly to combat climate change, and as a member of the State Senate, Hala is ready to continue her work in this area. Hala will work to ensure our Commonwealth can transition to clean energy like solar and wind, protect communities who are impacted by flooding, and make sure every Virginian has access to clean air and clean drinking water.