Fatima Iqbal-Zubair Shares Her Vision for California and Lessons Learned from First Run
Interview by Joaquin Romero
We spoke with Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, candidate for CA State Assembly in AD-65. Fatima is an educator with a background in local organizing. In 2020, she ran for Assembly for the first time, and was notably endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. In her current run, she has been endorsed by many local and state organizations, including both DSA LA and Long Beach, Ground Game LA, Our Revolution Long Beach, and Daybreak PAC. Recently, Fatima also received the endorsement of congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Her district, AD-65, covers areas of the greater LA area, including parts of Compton, Willowbrook, and Wilmington.
Here, Fatima speaks about how her experiences as an educator propelled her into local progressive politics, her visions for equitable environmental and educational policy, and the lessons learned from her first run for office.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Rift Magazine: Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself and your background and what prompted you to run for State Assembly?
Fatima Iqbal-Zubair: Okay that's a lot. I always tell people a large part of what's shaped who I am and how I view the world is that I've lived in many different places. I'm Sri Lankan by heritage. It's a little island in South Asia. Sri Lanka itself is mainly a Buddhist country, so I'm a minority as a Muslim in that country; I know what that feels like. But I was actually born in the Middle East and my family immigrated to Canada when the Gulf War was about to break out. So I know the impacts of war and what that can do to families. Then I moved to the first province that had passed healthcare for all. I mean, at the time I was young, I was seven, but one thing I found out from that experience was that the way people talk about health care in our country and our state. They’ll say, "Oh my gosh, there's these bills. I don't want to go to the doctor because I'll get this charge", and they’ll avoid getting their medicine. I never heard this in Canada. I grew up in a place where going to the doctor was in and out. I didn't have to do copays. I remember, you can sign out very easy, very quick, great service. And so I experienced that health care system, and that impacted me greatly. And then my family immigrated to New Jersey. And so I was near the location of 9/11 when that happened. As a Muslim person, I didn't wear a hijab at the time, but my mom did so I experienced that. I experienced how the world changed, how America changed, how our foreign policy drastically changed. I was clearly brown but I wasn't visibly Muslim because I wasn't wearing my hijab, but I still had things said to me, thrown at me, not as bad as if I were visibly Muslim, but I experienced that.
I moved out to California in 2009 after I got married. I was actually on the track to go to medical school. I actually went to the Caribbean for medical school for a few years and when I was moving out here, I was about to get into my rotations, but then I kind of changed my path. A lot of why I initially got into medicine — I love science, I still love science — it was that immigrant story of how your parents want you to be either a lawyer or a doctor, you know, a lot of big things. But I was like, I want to do something that I find super-meaningful, right?
Initially, I worked as a tutor. Working as a tutor I was able to go to low-income communities but also very wealthy communities. That opened my eyes to L.A. being like super unequal. I also worked as a coach, a cross-country coach. And in that experience, I found out what makes me happy. I found out what I was good at was working with youth, and working with low income youth. I got so much out of just their smiles, there are these light bulbs that go off when they succeed…It made me the happiest person in the world. That's why I went into teaching.
So I got my teaching credential, and I worked in Watts. That was my first teaching job in 2016. I started there when Bernie Sanders actually started his first run for president. I mention that because it's shaped me. I have a canvas of Bernie in my classroom. The way he talks about society, community, government…I never really felt the need to get involved before, or felt like my being involved had any power, but he made me feel like I could be powerful. And so, working in Watts, I would say that is the experience that really made me think about extreme inequities. Watts has the lowest life expectancy in all of LA county, I think about 12 years lower than the LA average. It has asthma and cancer rates much higher than the state and even national average. And you see extreme environmental toxicity. You see water issues, you see inequitable schools, you see gentrification happening. And I saw what my kids went through, what their families went through. Some of my students were foster kids, some were homeless, most came from single-parent housholds, some were undocumented. I saw all the things that we see in the news, but I saw the fears that they lived with every day. I remember when ICE was raiding in LA, I opened up my doors to some of my students because I wanted them to have a safe haven. I have the privilege of being a citizen. It's a privilege. And I legitimately had fear for my students, my students' families, you know.
In Watts I saw a lot happening. I was in the classroom every day. I was never able to bring programs, as a science teacher, that I wanted to do. There were always funding roadblocks that frustrated me because I was a very non-textbook teacher. I was always trying to do something different. I had to buy my own materials and I started the first robotics team there all out of private funding. The district didn't give me money. Now it's the fourth year and I'm still a mentor for that team. Over 90 percent of my kids are in college – community college or a four year college. One thing that I created, which is in one school, made such an impact. So that was a pivotal moment. The other thing was that my school was built not following environmental code; there's a recycling facility that's toxic. There's been lead and arsenic toxicity in our football field, the water wasn't clean drinking water. And this was happening all over Watts.
So I saw what was happening in the community, and I got on this organization called Watts Rising. I just got really involved with the community and eventually it was in that space – I was on the Watts Rising community advisory board – that I saw this real tension between city officials, elected officials and the community, just like extreme distrust. And it was surprising, but I understand why, of course. That led me to actually apply to be a commissioner to Gipson's [the incumbent’s] office. I was only there maybe six months, but I was on the Educational Commission. You know, typically I'm an advocate. I organize. I fight. And I kind of said, "Look, this is a space to make the changes”. I thought I would be able to work with Gipson on the budget, and things like that, and it really didn't seem like that sort of space. Maybe if I stayed longer, it could have been. But what really did it for me was I saw his record.
I was working with an activist from Food and Water Action, an environmental group, to bring something to the school. And she was like, “You know, have you ever thought about running for office?” I said no, I never thought about it. I'm just trying to do some local change in my school and in my community. She said, "Well, let's look at Gipson's record.” And I was literally in my living room one day with her, and we looked at his Courage Score, and I was like…I had tears in my eyes. That was my true reaction. All these things I've experienced the past several years in the community...he's not on the side of environmental justice in terms of his votes, he's also not always been on the side of criminal justice, you know, and a lot of other issues. I mean, he's the biggest corporate Democrat in the assembly. I think my first election pushed him a little bit, but he is still making slips along the way that aren't good for the community.
Last time we got Bernie Sanders’ endorsement, so we had a really enthusiastic, progressive movement behind us. Unfortunately, we couldn't use them to knock on doors because of COVID. This time, we'll be able to do that. We raised more money than we ever had last time. We've already raised about $125,000. So we're like, super viable. And I forgot to mention that after my assembly race, I actually ran for state delegate on a slate, to build up some momentum, and we unseated all of the entire incumbent's slate that he had endorsed. And so we have a lot of momentum, thankfully, through the community power that's being built. And I'm hoping that it'll continue to build and hope that it will carry not just me, but what I know the community believes in, and the things they've been fighting for, right to Sacramento.
Rift: What I'm hearing here is that since you have run once already, you're having this experience that plenty of other progressive challengers have where you run once and it's difficult, but you make ground, right? And then the second time, it's much easier to hit the ground running.
So just talk a bit more about the race. Has it been easier in that sense? Are there still roadblocks? And maybe talk a little bit more about Gipson and how you differentiate yourself. Because a lot of people, I think, don't have an awareness of what the State Assembly does, and don't have an awareness of how it affects their daily lives.
FIZ: So yeah, how is it different this time? Do I feel like I've learned more for this time? I learned the importance of fundraising early. Last time I got really good at fundraising towards the end. And when I say fundraising, for grassroots candidates, we're literally calling like Bernie donors, AOC donors, people that donated to Ilhan Omar in California. And so, you know, just literally spending hours calling. It's grueling, but I learned how to do it. I learned how to make that sale on the phone and get someone to donate like one hundred, two hundred, fifty bucks. Or sometimes you get large donations because they're really inspired and they're able to. I learned I need to fundraise early for a number of reasons. It helps with endorsements. Even with Bernie's endorsement, their team asked me, “Hey, how much have you fundraised?” And Bernie ran as a grassroots candidate, but he was a prolific fundraiser. He was good at it, right? Even if it was grassroots. So I realized when we're up against the corporate machine, we have to fundraise. You never, never fundraise as much as they do, but you have to have something, even if you just get in the field. Not to run the typical game of a corporate candidate, but we need the money for staff, field organizers. We can't run a good campaign just on volunteers, right?
The district is large. And while I still go to community meetings, last time was like, “I don't need to fundraise, I'll just go to all these community meetings as much as I can”. It was good because people got to know me and I was able to organize, but what I realized was there are people in their homes who don't have time to come to the meetings, and they need to know who I am. So I realize I can't just go to meetings. I’ve got to do that a little bit, but I've got to fundraise so I can have the resources to reach the number of voters I need to reach. So that's the main thing I learned.
That was the biggest thing, and then the other thing that's different is, starting in the field early. Last time, even in the primary where we did some field, I didn't have the momentum, so my volunteer base wasn't as large. I also didn't have PDI [political data intelligence], and now I laugh at myself, because it's like, “well, of course you have to do that”. But I wasn't. I was literally going to every door not really taking data. Like we were taking maybe some data, but it was like on a clipboard. So now we have all the technology, we have all the voter files, and we're doing data-driven strategies.
In terms of how do I differentiate myself from Gipson? A lot of ways. I am the working-class candidate. I was endorsed by Bernie, right? He wouldn't have endorsed me against an incumbent Democrat if the Democrat was good and someone who he was aligned with. Our campaign is the working-class movement here. I don't take corporate money. I don't take developer money. I don't even take money from people on the board of a charter school or tied to charter schools in a leadership sense. I don't take any of their money. I have returned checks. My money is all individuals, individuals that aren't tied to industries that have hurt our community.
If you look at Gipson, he's the biggest corporate Democrat in the assembly, second most for corporate money in the entire Legislature. He's very tied to the corporations, to the police unions. And look, I don't want to define them by this, but he was a former cop, right? So there's some association there. He is tied factually to police unions. He takes one of the largest amounts in police association money.
I've lobbied as a delegate for him to support single payer, to stop taking pharmaceutical money. He's not going to. He hasn't said yes. So we're very, very different in what we stand for. I am for single payer healthcare. I am for a Green New Deal, clean air, clean water. I am for working-class people at all costs, no matter what. I'm also for education. The first policy I wrote was for education equity, because I'm a teacher.
We only have one teacher up there right now. I would be the second one. That's why our state doesn't really focus on that, but I feel like it is important. That is how we're going to boost our economy. We need a well-trained, well-educated workforce. We need education that's high-quality and free and it should be free and accessible from the time a kid is born until they go to college. Education should never cost you money, whether it's technical school or anything. I really want to be a champion for that.
You know, my son has autism, so I saw that the first five years of a child's life are really important. We were able, we had private insurance, to get him therapy and because of that he's okay, but I see a lot of low income communities don't have access to that. And 85% percent of a kid's brain is growing those five years. So that is just detrimental when they don't have access. That's part of the reason I believe in single payer healthcare so strongly and why I don't believe in the private insurance industry, because I've seen how it's not helped communities but hurt them. And so that is the biggest difference.
Rift: Let me ask you about a different policy. When we're talking about the environment, you were just talking a minute ago about your experience with the school that you're working at being unsafe because of its proximity to a recycling plant. On your website, you use the term environmental racism to describe the way that your district has been treated, with the proliferation of oil wells, oil refineries. I've talked to Brian Odega, who's running for City Council in LA and he said the same things about the area. I think he mentioned a Green New Deal. And I hear about that policy a lot from candidates who are running for Congress and other offices. So what does environmental policy look like if you get into office? What are you going to be pushing for?
FIZ: Yeah, Thank you. That's a great question. My district as a whole, my assembly district, has a quarter of California's refineries. Seventy-five percent of the oil drilling happening in LA county is happening in our district. And the worst of that is localized in one small community of Wilmington. That's the worst of it. It's highly condensed and that makes it very unhealthy and unsafe. The other thing is we have water issues all over. You know, right now there's a huge thing about privatizing water. There are politicians writing bills trying to privatize water. I've seen that happen with the Sativa water district not providing high quality water to Compton and Willowbrook and the surrounding area. So there's water quality issues. And in terms of environmental justice, you look at the public health effects of that. The asthma rates, the cancer rates that are high in the district, much higher than the state average and the national average and so on. So those are some of the issues.
This is how I look at environmental justice and a Green New Deal. I believe that we have to get to a world where we are not so dependent on oil, on refining, on drilling. But I want to say this. I also acknowledge the fact that a lot of the workers, not all of them are in my district, but a lot of the jobs in these refineries are unionized jobs. And the battle isn't against that worker, right? The battle is against pollution, and the corporate oil industry. So that's important for me to say. Part of the reason I'm running is because I haven't seen any sort of overarching revolutionary environmental justice plan that's going to address this from an infrastructure, jobs, and just transition perspective. And I think that's why I've seen the building trades unions be at odds with the environmentalists at the state level when it shouldn't be. Because we need the building trades unions to build the infrastructure right for the Green New Deal.
And so what I think it looks like is we have to get to a model where we can transition to renewable energy as soon as it is possible. And when I say as soon as possible I mean that those workers in those refineries, and I'm not talking about the corporate executives, I'm talking about the workers literally just trying to put food on the table, they need a transition where they will have another job, a safer job, that is unionized and that pays well. So that's what it looks like for me, where we are going to have training apprenticeship programs, everything we need to get them ready for that infrastructure. Because we need them to build the infrastructure, right? We need those workers. And that's difficult, right? It's difficult because there's the climate crisis, we need something like now. And that's part of the reason I'm running, because I feel like no one has had the vision of how to get that done. I guess that's one thing.
The other thing is we have oil drilling happening next to people's homes. We are one of the only states that doesn't have a buffer zone, so we should have a buffer zone where it's not allowed. This is about public health. We need to clean up the oil wells, create that buffer zone. We need to get to a place where we can end fracking eventually. I don't want to be dependent on oil. The oil industry says that we'll have to import oil then, right? Well, no. No, we don't. We can build infrastructure for renewable energy, battery storage.
Environmental justice also looks like looking at the infrastructure of the state and the pipes in our state to make sure we have clean water. And really, in a massive overhaul, cleaning up toxic sites across the state, not just in my district. My district is one example that has lead in the soil, and arsenic and things like that. We need to make sure those sites are clean.
Also, I think a big part of it is access to clean food. A lot of my district is in a food desert. It's like that in places throughout the state. So just making sure that folks have access to not just fast food, that they have access to good food, healthy water, vegetables, fruits, because that affects public health outcomes too, right?
There are many social determinants that determine a person's life, outcome and health. That's food, that's water access, that's education, that includes how close you live to a refinery, or near a drilling site. So we need to look at all those things. It is an intersectional issue, which is why to do it, and to ensure that working-class folks aren't losing their jobs, we need a radical, all-encompassing plan. I don't know about you, but I haven't seen that at the state level.
Rift: And let me ask you also about educational policy. You were saying that that was the first thing that you focused on when you were developing your platform. On your website, you talk about free pre-K, free college tuition. As an educator yourself, talk about the importance of that kind of policy.
FIZ: For me, it comes down to the question, ‘Why do we punish a child?’ If you think of a child, whether they're going to college or whether they're going to grade school, they're spending their time trying to get their education, make their lives better, make their families’ lives better. But we are punishing them either at the lower grade levels with schools that are falling apart, schools that don't have updated lesson materials, that don't have well-paid teachers. And then when you think of college, I know literally so many of my students who are working full-time jobs because they don't want to take out loans.
What goes through my mind as an educator, as a mom, is that education should be the gateway. It should be the equalizer. It's really not. And in the richest state in the nation, why isn't it? That's what I wondered. Like, if any state can do it, we have the resources to do it. We used to have college be almost free in California, but after Prop 13, we didn't. We saw how schools deteriorated because to go to a public school, you have to live in an area with high property taxes. Well, guess who lives in that area? It's going to be mostly white folks, mostly privileged folks, folks with college educations, and then, of course, their kids. It's like you're continuing the upward mobility of folks that are doing well. But how are you helping give opportunity to the folks that are first generation college students or that are trying to get by and have upward mobility for their family?
So why it's important to me is I want it to be the great equalizer. I think it has to do with just really thinking about funding, funding schools over things like incarceration and policing and things that are hurting black and brown communities. I think when you don't give a black student or a brown student a good school, a good after school activity, access to college, access to a job, access to their own business -- what do you think is going to happen? What resources do they have?
So that's how I see it. It's that we need to massively provide these resources to our students. and it has to start from a young age. Like I mentioned, in the first five years of a child's life 85% of their brain is developing. So it starts from high quality investment in pre-K. Pre-K is not well funded. I think the most recent budget is funding it well, but that's going to take a while to see the effects. But I don't know if it's enough. We need to make sure that at every step of a child's life, and even a single mom that wants to go to school, education is accessible.
I think it's massive funding. It includes paying teachers more because we need to make sure we value the workers in education, so that we retain really good teachers in our communities. Having community based schools is really important, making sure parents have a say in how the schools run. The other thing I want to mention is I'm very against the privatization of the industry right now, because the charter schools are going into local communities and that's taking funding away from public schools. So that's why I don't take any charter school money. I feel very strongly that we need to work on rebuilding our public school system. That's like a short term Band-Aid, but in the long term, it's actually hurting the community, right, and decreasing the value of a public school. And a lot of times charter schools have their own other issues; they aren't unionized or they can shut down any time, they don't accept kids who are poor, highly disabled or disabled at all sometimes. So I'm a big proponent of fixing our public education system and making sure we have a moratorium on charter schools, a complete moratorium.
Rift: And just to round out the conversation here, in the greater LA area, I think there's a definite shift going on where there are more candidates running in this progressive lane for city races, for state races like yourself, and also running for Congress and other offices. You know, I am under the impression that a lot of you guys know each other, that you interact, that you're working to change the direction of politics on a pretty significant scale this election cycle.
What do you think about that? How do you see yourself as being part of that bigger movement? You mentioned the influence of Bernie Sanders and the Bernie Sanders movement. Do you think we're seeing something on maybe a smaller scale going on, but based on the same principles, in Los Angeles?
FIZ: Yeah, I do, and I think that's the effect of the Bernie Sanders movement. I would say if you ask most candidates what inspired them, he might be in the answer. Or someone who he informs, like AOC or Ilhan, right? They ran because of Bernie as well. So I think it is the effect of his movement. I think what's happening in LA is directly related to his movement. And I do feel like I'm a part of it, for sure. It's the reason I try to mentor candidates. I endorsed local candidates in Compton and half of them won. I try to, like Bernie, not necessarily endorse the establishment candidates. I try to push for the right sort of candidates, help candidates out who don't know how to run and say, "Okay, here's what you need to do". I'm committed to helping out candidates and taking their help as well. You know, learning together, because that is people power, that is grassroots power, that's how we learn. I remember when I first ran for office, I didn't know anything about it, and the way I learned was I had people I asked or they shared information with me about it. This is what I need to do. And so that's how I know I'm building a much stronger campaign than I did last time.
