California State Assembly District 65 candidate surveys, 2022

Elections in California, 2022

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This article shows responses from candidates in the 2022 election for California State Assembly District 65 who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.

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• Click here to see Candidate Connection survey responses.

Candidates and election results

General election

General election for California State Assembly District 65

Incumbent Mike Gipson defeated Fatima Iqbal-Zubair in the general election for California State Assembly District 65 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Mike Gipson (D)	61.7	43,118
		Fatima Iqbal-Zubair (D)	38.3	26,719

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 69,837
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses

Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. The section below shows responses from candidates in this race who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Survey responses from candidates in this race

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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.

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Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Fatima Iqbal-Zubair (D)

Public Safety: Due to rising inequality and skyrocketing expenses, our district hasn’t been getting any safer or more prosperous. We need to help our community thrive, not just survive! Crime is a symptom of inequality, and by increasing wages, safeguarding affordable housing and renters rights, treating mental health issues with free and accessible support, and setting up community-based restorative justice resources, we can stop crime and keep our families safe and happy. To start, I support ending ‘broken window’ policies, outlawing cash bail, and working with community-based violence prevention organizations.

Education: As a mother and a teacher, high-quality schools are a bedrock of my campaign. I support equitable, well-funded education from Pre-K on, and I support funding programs that our school systems work best for on our working families, like universal childcare. I would fight to increase funding for public education through a combination of creating a plan to ensure the health of our school system, expanding the state’s block grant allocation, and advocating for Schools and Communities First, which ensures that corporations will be held accountable for contributing their fair share to our schools and services.

Clean Air & Clean Water: delivering on clean air and clean water for our district is a centerpiece of my campaign. We need state-level legislation that comprehensively addresses rampant pollution in our communities: setback zones for oil and gas drilling sites, immediate surveys and public hearings about lead-based contamination, plans to relocate toxic materials or operations from around schools, homes, and hospitals, and special healthcare programs for people who have been impacted by toxic pollution in our state so far.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Fatima Iqbal-Zubair (D)

I am passionate about making our community beautiful and healthy. Our infrastructure is failing in so many ways - our pipes are contaminated, we have toxic waste sites that haven’t been cleaned up, our roads are in desperate need of repair, we don’t have adequate access to healthy fresh foods, and more. Addressing environmental racism through infrastructure projects is a big priority of mine. Our schools and homes have been polluted for decades with obvious public health impacts to our families. Lead exposures in our district are regularly registered as above toxic levels to youth. My students leave schools with nosebleeds from the dangerous chemicals, and we regularly have to contend with oil spills, unintentional chemical releases, and more. There’s a reason that these issues are happening in our south Los Angeles district instead of in Beverly Hills. Our district is home to 75% of LA county’s gas & oil drilling operations. Many of these sites are within 2500 feet of schools, hospitals, and homes, despite clear research that shows close proximity causes significantly negative public health impacts including higher rates of cancer, asthma, cardiovascular disease, and more. Additionally, our district has 1/3rd of our entire state’s refineries. Our district has a higher rate of asthma than almost anywhere else in the United States. We have one of the lowest life expectancies in the entire nation. It doesn’t have to be this way for our district!

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for state legislators to have previous experience in government or politics?

Fatima Iqbal-Zubair (D)

The benefit for a state legislator to have experience in government or politics is that they will likely learn the intricacies of how government works. But I believe moral fortitude is a far greater tool to have than even decades of experience. Thankfully, I've been able to develop both. My organizing efforts have led me to be elected to the Executive Board of the Democratic Party as well as on the board of the Progressive Caucus. I've been able to mobilize and activate to push to get key bills passed the past couple of years. Experience does teach you the ins and outs of Sacramento and negotiating for a bill that could pass and be signed into law, but moral fortitude, empathy and being connected to people over profits will allow you to believe in a cause so much that you will fight for it like your life depends on it. It means that you will put your own self-interests aside to work with others and across the aisle, but also to call legislators out who may be clearly tied to special interests. It means that you won’t rest until justice in any policy you are fighting for is achieved. This spirit, to me, is far more important that previous experience in government and politics. I'm grateful to have both!

See also

More about these elections:

• California State Assembly elections, 2022

Select a district below to read responses from candidates in those races:

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