Everything you need to know about ranked-choice voting in one spot. Click to learn more!

Alex Bastani

From Ballotpedia
Jump to: navigation, search
BP-Initials-UPDATED.png
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Alex Bastani
Image of Alex Bastani
Elections and appointments
Last election

June 17, 2025

Education

High school

T.C. Williams High School

Bachelor's

Boston University

Graduate

George Washington University, 2022

Law

George Mason University, 1994

Personal
Religion
Roman Catholic
Profession
Attorney
Contact

Alex Bastani (Democratic Party) ran for election for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. He lost in the Democratic primary on June 17, 2025.

Bastani completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Alex Bastani earned a high school diploma from T.C. Williams High School, a bachelor's degree from Boston University, a graduate degree from George Washington University in 2022, and a law degree from George Mason University in 1994. His career experience includes working as an attorney and economist.[1]

Elections

2025

See also: Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2025

General election

General election for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia

Ghazala Hashmi, John Reid, and Marlow Jones are running in the general election for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia on November 4, 2025.

Candidate
Image of Ghazala Hashmi
Ghazala Hashmi (D) Candidate Connection
Image of John Reid
John Reid (R)
Image of Marlow Jones
Marlow Jones (Independent) (Write-in)

Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia

The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia on June 17, 2025.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Ghazala Hashmi
Ghazala Hashmi Candidate Connection
 
27.5
 
136,717
Image of Levar Stoney
Levar Stoney
 
26.5
 
131,765
Image of Aaron Rouse
Aaron Rouse
 
26.2
 
130,485
Image of Babur Lateef
Babur Lateef
 
8.5
 
42,099
Image of Alex Bastani
Alex Bastani Candidate Connection
 
5.7
 
28,476
Image of Victor Salgado
Victor Salgado Candidate Connection
 
5.6
 
27,593

Total votes: 497,135
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled. John Reid advanced from the Republican primary for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Campaign finance

Endorsements

Bastani received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.

Campaign themes

2025

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Alex Bastani completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Bastani's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I am a graduate of Virginia public schools from Camelot Elementary in Fairfax to T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria. I was a federal employee for 34 years with the Department of Labor as an Economist. I have been member of the Virginia State Bar for over thirty years since graduating from George Mason School of Law. Most importantly for the office I seek, I was a thirty year card carrying union member and served over a decade as a local union President. In that time I more than doubled the local's surplus from 130 k to 287K. In 2007 I lead a successful fight against the Bush and Chao administration in their attempt to privatize 300 federal positions. I litigated 75 arbitration including a four year battle where I won the job and back pay for a single mother targeted by Elaine Chao's staff. I was the leader of the organization when we won a 7 million dollar case for overtime violations by the National Office of the United States Department of Labor. I also coach the Yorktown High School Freshman Boy's Team.
  • We will fight for universal health care for each and every Virginian. The nation of Belgium has the same gross domestic product as the Commonwealth with three million more citizens and they provide universal health care. Universal health care is supported by 80 to 85 percent of Democrats and should be a litmus test to represent the party in a General Election. One can't claim to support women's reproductive rights unless you favor universal health care as family planning is an economic issue and as many as half of the state's population cannot afford a 500 dollar emergency. Finally, a study by the Yale Medical School demonstrates that the increased taxes is less than the current premiums paid to health insurance companies.
  • We will fight for a statewide minimum wage of twenty dollars an hour. The Economic Policy Institute found that worker productivity has increased almost four times greater than workers wages. Therefore, a higher minimum wage isn't just about fairness but this investment in the working class will inspire economic growth. The fight for worker rights in Virginia also requires the repeal of the unconstitutional so-called "Right to Work" law which used government power on the behalf of corporations against the workers to deny their First Amendment right to freedom of assembly. Two-thirds of Americans support labor unions while most other national institutions have the faith of twenty percent or less of the populace.
  • We must have student debt relief to free a generation from the bonds which prevents them for owning a home, starting a business, or start a family. College education was essentially free in the United States until California Governor Reagan expressed his fear of an educated mass populace during the 1960s Civil Rights and Anti-War protests. As good Democrats we must fight this terrible legacy and erase student debt as the Bible Book of Deuteronomy 15:1-3. Where is the money coming from? The military-industrial complex in our state makes billons every year. In addition, we have four public state university with almost 15 billion dollars of endowment money earning interest. Let's invest that money in our future - the next generation
We face the greatest period of economic inequality in our nation since the Gilded age. The bottom 50 percent income only own three percent of the property. This is not only immoral but it is unsustainable.

This inequality undermines our democracy as the voter turnout among those with a college education in the 2020 Presidential election was two-thirds but less than forty percent for those with a high school diploma or less. The very people who need the government the most are the least involved and have the least amount of faith in our system. We cannot allow this situation to continue.
The most important characteristic of an elected official is not solely to serve the whole but endeavor to serve those who have little or no access to economic or political power. This is not limited to the less economically fortunate but also to those who don't believe their elected officials speak for them.
My greatest strength is persistence a refusing to accept limitations. I was told we couldn't stop the Bush privatization efforts at the Department of Labor in 2007; we cancelled the effort within two months of the reduction in force notice.
The office of Lieutenant Governor must be a bully pulpit for the most basic principles of fairness, decency, dignity, and human rights. While the Governor holds the ultimate power in the state the Lieutenant must act as a moral conscience for what is decent for every citizen not just the political and donor class.
That during my term in office we effectuate universal health care for every Virginian, we increase the minimum wage to 20 dollars an hour, we repeal the Right to Work law in oder that almost forty percent of Virginian employers are unionized, and free public college, take schools and apprenticeship programs.
Every citizen should have the right to know how every penny of state revenue is spent. Every voter should be made aware of those who financially support their elected officials. The Commonwealth at the very least should adopt the financial requirements of the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign website

Bastani's campaign website stated the following:

Virginia Worker’s Freedom Act (2026)

On July 1, 2026, the state minimum wage will rise to $20 an hour—because no Virginian who works full-time should be living in poverty. Sixty percent of Republicans support this common-sense idea. It’s not radical—it’s just right. If you put in an honest day’s work, you should be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment and live with dignity.

We’ll also restore the First Amendment rights of Virginia’s workers. On that same day, the so-called “Right to Work” law—better known as the “Right to Be Exploited” law—will be repealed. And with it, the era of union-busting and wage suppression will end. The people who build, teach, and serve this Commonwealth will once again have the power to organize, to bargain, and to demand their fair share.

Virginia’s state and municipal workers will finally be granted collective bargaining rights—the same rights federal workers have had since 1978. No more two-tiered systems that punish our public servants. Our teachers, firefighters, sanitation workers, and nurses deserve more than pats on the back—they deserve a seat at the table and a voice in their future.

Every Virginian will have full physical and mental healthcare coverage. That means no more choosing between medicine and rent, or staying in a bad job just to keep your insurance. That fear ends on July 1, 2026—replaced by a system that values health, dignity, and freedom.

We’re going to fund student debt relief by making the military-industrial complex finally pay its fair share. Inspired by the biblical Jubilee in Deuteronomy 15:1-3, we’ll wipe the slate clean for thousands of Virginians—unlocking dreams of homeownership, small business creation, and family-building that debt has stolen for far too long.

As we celebrate 250 years of American independence, let’s give working people the same freedoms we’ve handed corporations for decades. Let’s make July 1, 2026, the day we declare economic liberty for all—and put the people of Virginia first. [2]

—Alex Bastani's campaign website (2025)[3]


Campaign finance summary

Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.

See also


External links

Footnotes

  1. Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 6, 2025
  2. Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  3. Alex Bastani's campaign website, “My Promise,” accessed May 7, 2025