ROANOKE, Va. – We are only a few weeks away from what is shaping up to be a historic election day for the Commonwealth.

10 News anchor Abbie Coleman met with both candidates for lt. gov. to probe their plans, their priorities, and their paths to history.

She sat down one-on-one with Democratic candidate Ghazala Hashmi to talk about her vision for Virginia and why she believes she’s the right person for the job.

You can watch Republican candidate John Reid’s interview here.

Read the full transcript of her interview with Hashmi below.

You made history as the first Muslim woman elected to the Virginia State Senate. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and what inspired you to kind of step into this political role?

Well, thank you so much, Abbie. And yes, you know, I spent almost 20 years in the college classroom. My professional background is actually as a professor of literature, and I truly loved the work that I was doing. But I started to see how so many decisions being made at the state level were impacting the lives of my students. Whether it was childcare issues, inability to find affordable housing, the rising cost of groceries, so many of my students were being impacted by what was happening outside, and not what was happening academically, and I felt like I could make a difference. I decided to run in 2019 for the State Senate seat. I’ve been proud to represent Richmond City as well as surrounding localities over the past six years, doing the critical policy work that really impacts the lives of Virginia’s families.

What are the top priorities you want to focus on right now, and if you are one day elected?

So as we know, so many of Virginia’s families are being impacted by decisions that are being made in Washington by the Trump administration, by our Republican-led Congress. Top of mind for so many families are the issues around healthcare, particularly Medicaid funding, as well as education, as well as affordability of housing. Those are the areas I want to focus on right away. I’m running against somebody who wants to close down public schools, who has said that there are no impacts [regarding] the Medicaid cuts that we are beginning to see already, the closure of hospitals. That’s why I want to make sure that we’re addressing the issues that are going to impact families.

Virginia is a very diverse state, in the way that you can go up to Northern Virginia, and it could almost feel like a completely different world than down here in Southwest Virginia. What are you hearing from voters in Southwest Virginia, and how do you plan to address their top concerns?