Saddam Salim
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Saddam Salim (Democratic Party) is a member of the Virginia State Senate, representing District 37. He assumed office on January 10, 2024. His current term ends on January 12, 2028.
Salim (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Virginia State Senate to represent District 37. He won in the general election on November 7, 2023.
Salim completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Saddam Salim was born in Noakhali, Bangladesh. He graduated from Falls Church High School. Salim earned an associate degree from Northern Virginia Community College in 2010 and a bachelor's degree and a graduate degree in public administration from George Mason University in 2012 and 2015, respectively. His career experience includes working in financial services.[1]
Salim has been affiliated with the following organizations:[1]
- South Asians for America
- Fairfax Young Democrats
- Fairfax County Democrats
- Providence District Democratic Committee
Elections
2023
See also: Virginia State Senate elections, 2023
General election
General election for Virginia State Senate District 37
Saddam Salim defeated Ken Reid in the general election for Virginia State Senate District 37 on November 7, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Saddam Salim (D)  | 68.7 | 40,947 |
 | Ken Reid (R) | 30.9 | 18,427 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.4 | 238 | ||
| Total votes: 59,612 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Virginia State Senate District 37
Saddam Salim defeated incumbent John Chapman Petersen in the Democratic primary for Virginia State Senate District 37 on June 20, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Saddam Salim | 54.1 | 10,477 |
 | John Chapman Petersen | 45.9 | 8,880 | |
| Total votes: 19,357 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Ken Reid advanced from the Republican primary for Virginia State Senate District 37.
Endorsements
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Salim received the following endorsements. To view a full list of Salim's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here.
Campaign themes
2023
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released March 15, 2023 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Saddam Salim completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Salim's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
Originally from Bangladesh, Saddam Azlan Salim came to the US at 10 years old and worked his way from homelessness to success with his family in Falls Church. He attended Northern Virginia Community College and received a bachelor's and master's in public administration from George Mason University. Now a financial consultant in Northern Virginia, he has served as Finance Vice-Chair for the Fairfax County Democrats, co-Chair of South Asians for America, and Vice President of Fairfax Young Democrats.
- Gun Violence Prevention: Virginia should have an assault weapons ban, more regulations on gun sales, and other common sense gun control solutions to improve public safety.
- Affordable Housing: Saddam Salim will fight for the expansion of affordable housing options in our region. He will work to create more financial incentives and a more streamlined process for localities to construct affordable housing.
- The Future of Virginia: We need to ensure full reproductive rights, rights for LGBTQIA+ people, a clean energy plan, economic sustainability and diversity equity and inclusion - in sort, a focus on the future and not the failed policies of the past.
Affordable housing is very important to me because I've been homeless before and I've struggled to get affordable housing in this region, so I know how much it matters to quality of life, to education, to socioeconomic opportunity, etc. I'm also passionate about reproductive rights because I've seen first hand how much it matters - my mother's life was saved by reproductive healthcare and I know it is vital that people be able to make decisions with their doctors without government interference. I'm also passionate about Virginia's future - as a person of color, an immigrant and a young person, I know we have a lot of challenges ahead of us and we must begin now to pave the way for a brighter future for all Virginians.
I admire Nelson Mandela because no matter what he was going through, he stayed true to his purpose and fought for human rights. I hope I can stay focused on what's really important like that as a state legislator.
Integrity - people have to know that the person they've elected will be true to their word
Honesty - people have to be able to hear the truth from their elected leaders
Compassion - people need a leader who can empathize and understand what they are going through
Inclusivity - people need leaders who care about including as many diverse voices as possible in the decision making process
I am a very honest person and I'm very mild-mannered - I tend to react in a very patient manner under stress. I think it's very important to know all the facts before I act - I like to talk to as many people as I can and understand things from multiple perspectives before I proceed. I've been called a "pragmatic progressive" before and I think that captures a lot about my personality as well.
1) Be responsive and available to your constituents.
2) Be a voice in your community on the issues that are important to your constituents.
3) Be honest and accountable for your role as a state leader.
4) Be willing to do the work to get people to come to the table and negotiate to solve problems.
5) Be steadfast - see the work through to the end. When a legislator commits to getting a piece of legislation passed, they should consider that a commitment they've made no matter how long it takes.
I would like to help usher Virginia into a new era of progress and prosperity. I would like to significantly contribute to address climate change and preparing the next generation for what it will take to get us ready for that. I'd like to know that I did something to expand human rights in Virginia, particularly for vulnerable groups that haven't always received the equality they have long deserved.
The first historical event I remember is the 1998 flood that hit my home country of Bangladesh. It destroyed my home and was the catalyst for my family coming to this country. I was 8 years old at the time.
My first job was as a cashier at Video Warehouse after high school. It only lasted a month because they went out of business in summer of 2008.
"Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness" - I feel like everyone should read this book in order to have some insight about how to thrive on a personal level.
My first name is Saddam, and that name has some cultural connections that are negative for some people based on our history with another famous Saddam. I've received some hate mail and some threats for having that name. My family has also struggled with poverty as immigrants in this country - we were briefly homeless and it took us a while to get on our feet when we first arrived here. But we worked together and overcame the obstacles in our path - I'm very proud of how hard we've worked in this country to get where we are.
The ideal relationship is one of mutual respect and cooperation. When we work together, the legislature and the governor can achieve a lot together in terms of making people's lives better and improving our economy so the commonwealth thrives.
I think our greatest challenges will be about whether we embrace the needs we have for the future - addressing climate change, embracing diversity, equity and inclusion, guaranteeing and expanding reproductive rights, protecting vulnerable communities like our LGBTQIA+ population, protecting the right to vote, improving our electrical grid and investing in infrastructure, etc. - over the failed policies of the past. We should not be moving backwards but forward into a new future for Virginia, one that is inclusive, one that embraces our freedoms and protects our vulnerable populations and seeks to give everyone a seat at the table.
It can be beneficial, but we also need to give first time officeholders a chance to participate and to learn. New leadership can also expand what we're able to do in the legislature - new voices help us better understand what people need.
Yes, I think relationships are at the heart of what we do. Both relationships with our constituents and relationships with each other matter quite a bit. We need to stay in touch with the people who voted us into office so we know what they are thinking, what they need, what they are going through. And we need to have congenial, respectful relationships with our colleagues, so we can get things done together.
I admire State Senator Janet Howell for her ability to work on our state budget - I would like to be someone who can do that in the Senate.
At the moment, I'm focused on serving at the state level.
I spoke to a constituent while door knocking who talked to me about the needs of their trans child - it impacted me deeply because I realized how bullied and scared families of trans people are feeling because of the many challenges to their rights moving through state legislatures right now. It. made me realize that we have to support people right now, the way that my community (the Muslim community) was supported during Trump's Muslim ban.
I think we should have some oversight of that power.
I believe dialogue and compromise are part of what we do to get legislation passed. We have to be willing to hear what the other side is thinking about and what they value, and we need to work to find common ground when we can, so we can do things together whenever possible.
I want to introduce some legislation related to bringing down maternal mortality statistics - particularly in terms of requiring hospitals to invest in equipment that helps them respond when there is an emergency postpartum.
Steve Descano, Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney
Buta Biberaj, Loudoun County Commonwealth's Attorney
Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, Arlington County Commonwealth's Attorney
Blue Virginia
Delegate Joshua Cole
Virginia Former Secretary of Education Atif Qarni
Repro Rising Virginia
Billy Bates, City Councilmember, City of Fairfax
Mo Seifeldein, former City Councilmember, Alexandria
Peg Willingham, Former Falls Church City Democratic Committee Chair
Robert Rigby, Co-Chair of FCPS Pride
Andrew Goddard, Legislative Director of Virginia Center for Public Safety
South Asians for America
Indian American Impact
Progressive Democrats of America
Finance interests me because of my background. The Local Government committee interests me because I believe supporting our municipalities and counties are incredibly critical to the Commonwealth's success.
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 finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Virginia scorecards, email suggestions to [email protected].
See also
2023 Elections
External links
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Candidate Virginia State Senate District 37 |
Officeholder Virginia State Senate District 37 |
Personal |
Footnotes
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Dave Marsden (D) |
Virginia State Senate District 37 2024-Present |
Succeeded by - |
