As voters in Virginia head to the polls on Tuesday, Virginia state senator Ghazala Hashmi is on the brink of achieving a historic feat. The 61-year-old Democrat is vying to become Virginia’s next lieutenant governor that would make her the first Muslim woman ever to be elected to statewide office in the United States.
Hashmi faces an uphill battle against Republican John Reid, a former conservative talk radio host who could also make history by becoming the country’s first openly gay Republican to be elected to statewide office.
This is a historic Virginia election, which will send the first-ever woman to the governor’s office, as former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger and Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears are vying for the seat.
In an interview on Monday, Hashmi urged voters to support leaders who would push back against what she referred to as the “chaos of Washington and Donald Trump,” citing the economic toll of the federal government shutdown on Virginia’s workforce.
Ghazala Hashmi Profile
Hashmi was born in Hyderabad, India, and raised in Georgia, moving to the U.S. as a child. Her husband Azhar Rafiq is reportedly from Karachi. She first made history in 2019 by becoming the first Indian American and Muslim woman elected to the Virginia Senate.
Her campaign revolves around public education, reproductive rights, gun safety, environmental protection, and affordable healthcare.
If lady luck smiles on Hashmi, she would become only the second immigrant elected to statewide office in Virginia’s history, after Earle-Sears, who was born in Jamaica.
