Afghan refugee challenges Rep. Connolly in Democratic primary

Congressional candidate Zainab Mohsini (right) with volunteers (from the left) Billy Bates, Will McLauchlin, and Jackson Anderson.

Campaigning during a pandemic is so much more challenging, says congressional candidate Zainab Mohsini.

It’s especially difficult for a political neophyte and progressive like Mohsini, an immigrant from Afghanistan, who’s up against the well-known and well-funded Rep. Gerry Connolly, who’s represented the 11th District in Congress since 2009. Most of the Annandale area is in the 11th District. 

Mohsini and Connolly are on the ballot in the Democratic primary, which has been delayed from June 9 to June 23. (Voters are strongly encouraged to request an absentee ballot. Concern about contracting COVID-19 is a valid reason to vote absentee.)

When the pandemic hit, Mohsini’s campaign team “moved everything to digital outreach, including texts, Facebook Live, and Instagram Live,” she says, although “it’s so much more effective when you’re at the door.” 

So many people have lost jobs because of the pandemic, she says, which makes it more important than ever to have policies that protect people, such as Medicare for all. 

Mohsini also supports free tuition for public colleges and universities and student debt, loan forgiveness, and immigrants’ rights, along with all mail-in voting, which is especially important during the pandemic. 

Mohsini earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Virginia Tech and currently works at a nonprofit focusing on reproductive justice. 

When she was 14, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees placed her family – a single mother and five children – in Beaverton, Ore. Without money or knowing anyone in the area, the family found it difficult overcoming cultural and language barriers. 

So, in 2006, when Zanaib was a junior in high school, they moved to Northern Virginia, where they had relatives and there is a large Afghan community. 

After graduating from Battlefield High School in Haymarket, Mohsini worked at a Target, and her siblings worked at multiple jobs so they could afford a $5,000-a-month mortgage. Even so, they couldn’t keep up with the payments and lost their home during the housing crisis. 

While Mohsini has never held public office before, she says what brings to the table is “lived experience, the experience of losing a home and living paycheck to paycheck.” 

Noting that more than 30 percent of the population in the 11th District are immigrants, Mohsini says,  “people are actually losing lives because legislators and politicians are not representing a lot of community members.” [Rep. Connolly is a co-sponsor of  the Coronavirus Immigrant Families Protection Act.]

she accuses Connolly of taking money from ICE contractors and investing in the defense contract industry. “My family had to flee our country because of U.S. involvement,” she says. 

“As an immigrant, I’m almost always asked about my loyalty to this country. I’m here because I believe in social justice and positive change, a better future, and an equitable society,” she says. “I’m hopeful about the future of this country despite everything that’s happening.”