Virginia’s Ghazala Hashmi becomes first Muslim elected statewide in the Old Dominion

The Fox News Decision Desk has projected that Democratic state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi will become the next lieutenant governor of Virginia. 

Hashmi was born in Hyderabad, India, grew up in Georgia and represented Chesterfield County in the Virginia state Senate in her most recent public role.

She has a doctorate in American literature from Emory University, and her campaign repeatedly highlighted her curriculum vitae as a public educator.

She was a professor at the University of Richmond and the nearby J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College, where she was the first director of its Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

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Hashmi was the only statewide candidate in the Virginia sweeps to repeatedly decline invitations and challenges to debate her opponent.

That opponent, Richmond broadcaster John Reid, in turn released a 45-minute mock debate video in which Hashmi’s public policy positions were highlighted in fact, but by an AI version of the lieutenant governor-elect.

Hashmi is also the first South Asian to have served in the state Senate.

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She is primed to preside over the upper chamber in the lieutenant governor’s most visible role, where she will wield the gavel over a narrowly divided, Democratic majority Senate.

Hashmi’s campaign focused on supporting public education, expanding Medicaid and protecting abortion rights.

She also emphasized climate change, environmental protection and affordable housing, themes that align with mainstream Democratic priorities.

On the campaign trail, Hashmi also reportedly said she hopes to lead a repeal of Virginia’s "Right to Work" law, which provides protections for workers against being required to join unions as a prerequisite for employment.

She also presaged a contentious relationship with President Donald Trump, saying that his second term is "worse than the first time around" and that the mogul has surrounded himself with "villainous creatures," according to Annandale Today.